New Delhi: As per IDC’s official report, Smartphone sales in India grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013, buoyed by a strong uptake of affordable devices made by local firms such as Micromax and Karbonn.
While Samsung maintained its leadership with a 38 per cent share of the Indian smartphone market, the sales of Micromax raised by 16 per cent. Karbonn sales increased by 10 per cent, Sony by 5 per cent and Lava 4.7 per cent in Q4 2013. The 5 inch-6.99 inch screen size phablets accounted for about 20 percent of the overall market in Q4.
There was a remarkable migration from feature phones to smartphones in 2013, primarily because of the narrowing price gaps between the two product categories, it added. Overall phone shipments in the country rose 18 per cent to about 257 million units in 2013 from 218 million units in the previous year.
Smartphone shipments stood at 16.2 million in 2012. IDC stated "India was one of the fastest-growing countries worldwide in terms of smartphone adoption in 2013. This surge has been mainly powered by home grown vendors, which have shown a tremendous and consistent growth over the past four quarters of 2013,"
The IDC report even stated further that ‘Growth in the smartphone segment is expected to outpace the overall handset market growth for the foreseeable future. The end-user shift towards mid-to-high screen size products will be amplified by the declining prices and availability of feature-rich localised product offerings.’
"Growth in the smartphone market is being propelled by the launch of low-end, cost competitive devices by international and local vendors which are further narrowing the price gaps that exist between feature phones and smartphones," said IDC India Senior Market Analyst, Manasi Yadav.
‘In the long run, International vendors have understood the importance of creating a diverse portfolio of devices at varied price points and are striving to launch cost competitive devices that cater to every segment in the target audience,’ highlighted IDC India Research Manager, Kiran Kumar.
