Micromax, India’s very own smartphone maker known for introducing big features at a relatively low price has snatched the crown of the country’s largest smartphone maker from Korean giant, Samsung.
In a report issued on Feb. 3, research firm Canalys said Micromax accounted for 22 percent of smartphone shipments in India in the October-December quarter, ahead of Samsung’s 20 percent. In total, 21.6 million smartphones were sold in India in the period, a 90 percent surge from a year earlier. The development is significant as India is the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market and is set to overtake the United States (which itself trails China) to become the world’s second-largest market by smartphone sales. As in the neighboring China where homegrown Xiaomi rules, in India too a domestic brand has annexed the top spot. Micromax is said to be contemplating an initial public offering of its shares.
Canalys said Micromax’s performance was partly due to its continuing appeal to mobile phone users upgrading to smartphones. It estimated nearly a quarter of smartphones sold in India in the fourth quarter were devices priced under $100, while 41 percent of devices sold were in the $100-$200 range.
Micromax and Samsung were followed by two other Indian budget smartphone brands, Karbonn and Lava, by number of handsets sold in fourth quarter, Canalys said.
UPDATE: A day after Canalys said Micromax is now the largest smartphone vendor in India, Counterpoint (another research firm) stated today that the Korean giant continues to be at the top with 27.4 per cent smartphone market share in the October-December 2014 quarter.
Samsung had refuted the Canalys report saying it had 34.3 per cent share in the Indian smartphone market as per GfK data, which is based on actual sales numbers, putting it ahead of the domestic rival.
According to Counterpoint, smartphone shipments stood close to 22 million during October-December 2014 quarter and crossing 80 million units in 2014.
