Low-cost smartphones hurting feature phones in India: Report
Driven
by lower-priced models from domestic handset makers, smartphone sales
in India has grown over three-fold to touch 12.8 million units in third
quarter of 2013 cannibalising the feature phone market, research firm
IDC says.
According to IDC, the India smartphone market grew by 229% year-on-year to 12.8 million smartphones in third quarter of 2013 compared to 3.8 million units in Q3 of 2012.
Smartphone sales grew 28% in Q3 of 2013 compared to April-June 2013 (10.02 million), it added.
A smartphone is a mobile device built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced capabilities and connectivity than a feature phone.
IDC said 53.9 million feature phones numbers were sold in Q3 of 2013 compared to 55.7 million in Q3 of 2012.
The share of feature phones slipped to 81% (from 84%) of the total market in Q3 2013, it added.
This is despite feature phone sales growing three per cent quarter-on-quarter in the July-September 2013.
"The change agents for this rapid shift of consumer preference towards Smartphones have been the narrowing price gap between feature phones and smartphones," IDC India Research Manager Kiran Kumar said.
The smartphone market is expected to maintain these elevated levels of growth in the near future, Kumar added.
The overall mobile phone market (feature phones and smartphones) registered 12% year-on-year growth and 7% sequential growth.
The share of feature phones slipped to 81% of the total market in Q3 2013, even as the segment grew 3% quarter-on-quarter in the July-September 2013.
South Korean firm Samsung led the handset market with 15.3% share, followed by Nokia (14.7%), Micromax (10.1%) and Karbonn (9.1%). Other smaller players accounted for a cumulative share of 50.8%.
"The growth in the smartphone market continues to drive the overall growth numbers for the phone market - given that there's still a huge potential for smartphone penetration in India, this trend is expected to continue in the coming quarters," IDC India Senior Market Analyst Manasi Yadav said.
In the smartphone segment, Samsung held the leadership spot with 32.9 per cent share, while Micromax secured the second spot with 17.1% market share in Q3 of 2013. Karbonn had 11.2% share, followed by Nokia 5% and Lava at 4.7%.
According to IDC, the India smartphone market grew by 229% year-on-year to 12.8 million smartphones in third quarter of 2013 compared to 3.8 million units in Q3 of 2012.
Smartphone sales grew 28% in Q3 of 2013 compared to April-June 2013 (10.02 million), it added.
A smartphone is a mobile device built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced capabilities and connectivity than a feature phone.
IDC said 53.9 million feature phones numbers were sold in Q3 of 2013 compared to 55.7 million in Q3 of 2012.
The share of feature phones slipped to 81% (from 84%) of the total market in Q3 2013, it added.
This is despite feature phone sales growing three per cent quarter-on-quarter in the July-September 2013.
"The change agents for this rapid shift of consumer preference towards Smartphones have been the narrowing price gap between feature phones and smartphones," IDC India Research Manager Kiran Kumar said.
The smartphone market is expected to maintain these elevated levels of growth in the near future, Kumar added.
The overall mobile phone market (feature phones and smartphones) registered 12% year-on-year growth and 7% sequential growth.
The share of feature phones slipped to 81% of the total market in Q3 2013, even as the segment grew 3% quarter-on-quarter in the July-September 2013.
South Korean firm Samsung led the handset market with 15.3% share, followed by Nokia (14.7%), Micromax (10.1%) and Karbonn (9.1%). Other smaller players accounted for a cumulative share of 50.8%.
"The growth in the smartphone market continues to drive the overall growth numbers for the phone market - given that there's still a huge potential for smartphone penetration in India, this trend is expected to continue in the coming quarters," IDC India Senior Market Analyst Manasi Yadav said.
In the smartphone segment, Samsung held the leadership spot with 32.9 per cent share, while Micromax secured the second spot with 17.1% market share in Q3 of 2013. Karbonn had 11.2% share, followed by Nokia 5% and Lava at 4.7%.
Google has let us know
the latest breakdown of its Android mobile operating system statistics,
and for the first time, Android 4.4 KitKat has appeared on the radar. In
this month’s pie chart, the Android 4.4 KitKat market share makes its
debut, but needless to say, it remain extremely small in nature –
measuring all of just 1.1%. That is not surprising since Android 4.4
KitKat happens to be made available to an extremely limited number of
handsets, including the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, the Google Play
edition phones and the Moto X.
As for the largest distribution of the Android version on the pie, it
would be Android 4.1 to Android 4.3. Jelly Bean, where their combined
total managed to touch a market share of 54.5%. This marks an increase
of 2.4% in comparison to the previous month, while Android 4.0 Ice Cream
Sandwich saw a decline of 1.2% to touch 18.6% this month. Android 3.2
Honeycomb remained pretty much the same at just 0.1%, while Android 2.3
Gingerbread makes haste on its downward spiral, dropping to just 24.1%
with no sign of it making a comeback – which is a good thing, of course,
since it would signal that more and more folks have jumped onto newer
versions of the Android operating system. When do you think Android 4.4
KitKat will be the dominant version? KitKat has been ported over before
to older handsets, too.: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/12/kitkat-now-part-of-android-distribution-stats/
Google has let us know
the latest breakdown of its Android mobile operating system statistics,
and for the first time, Android 4.4 KitKat has appeared on the radar. In
this month’s pie chart, the Android 4.4 KitKat market share makes its
debut, but needless to say, it remain extremely small in nature –
measuring all of just 1.1%. That is not surprising since Android 4.4
KitKat happens to be made available to an extremely limited number of
handsets, including the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, the Google Play
edition phones and the Moto X.
As for the largest distribution of the Android version on the pie, it
would be Android 4.1 to Android 4.3. Jelly Bean, where their combined
total managed to touch a market share of 54.5%. This marks an increase
of 2.4% in comparison to the previous month, while Android 4.0 Ice Cream
Sandwich saw a decline of 1.2% to touch 18.6% this month. Android 3.2
Honeycomb remained pretty much the same at just 0.1%, while Android 2.3
Gingerbread makes haste on its downward spiral, dropping to just 24.1%
with no sign of it making a comeback – which is a good thing, of course,
since it would signal that more and more folks have jumped onto newer
versions of the Android operating system. When do you think Android 4.4
KitKat will be the dominant version? KitKat has been ported over before
to older handsets, too.: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/12/kitkat-now-part-of-android-distribution-stats/
