India to lead in smartphones market by 2017

Mumbai: India will soon overtake the United States to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017, selling an impressive 174 million units. According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales are forecast to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017. China, India and the US are the big three countries driving smartphone growth worldwide.

According to Strategy Analytics, 458 million smartphones will be sold in China in 2015, rising steadily to 505 million in 2017. “China has been the engine of global smartphone growth in recent years, but China is now maturing and slowing. India is fast becoming the next major growth wave. We forecast 118 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2015, increasing strongly to 174 million in 2017.

India’s growth is being driven by low smartphone penetration, expanding retail availability of devices, wealthier middle-class consumers, and aggressive promotions from local smartphone brands like Micromax,” said Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics. While China and the US are expected to see a deceleration in the growth of smartphones sales in the next two years, India’s market is projected to grow double- digit.