Our love for smartphones has strongly contributed to the overall growth of Indian Handset Market that posted revenue of Rs 35,946 crore in financial year 2013, compared with Rs 31,330 crore a year ago. According to the 18th annual 'V&D 100' survey that covered more than 30 mobile handset companies, Korean electronics-maker Samsung has finally dethroned the Finnish handset maker Nokia from the top position in FY13.
The growth of Samsung in Indian handset market has been attributed to its rich product portfolio catering to customers of all budget ranges and preferences, product quality and other new features. The company also became the market leader capturing 31.5 per cent of the overall market share. The finding is similar to the recent report by Canalys, according to which Samsung took over a third of the Indian smartphone market in Q2 2013 leaving Nokia and other Indian mobile phone firms behind.
The former king of Indian mobile phone market Nokia dropped a rank to be placed at number two in the survey with 27.2 per cent market share. According to the report, Nokia’s drop in market share started when the company failed to sense the need of a dual-SIM phone for the Indian consumer, and the same was tapped by the Indian players’ years ahead of global players like Nokia.
Homegrown handset companies, Micromax and Karbonn captured the third and fourth spot respectively. Capitalizing on some smart thinking and innovative products, Micromax enjoys an 8.7 per cent market share while Karbonn captured a 6.4 per cent market share.
The iconic Apple that grew a mammoth 417.2 per cent now enjoys 3.6 per cent market share in India. Though India was never a focus market for Apple, appointing Ingram Micro and Redington as the national distributors for sales and offering EMI schemes to the consumers changed the game for them.
