The Indian Smartphone market grew by more than 17% and 27.5 million units were shipped in the second quarter of 2016. Apple could not make much impact in the premium segment of the Indian Smartphone market which was dominated by Samsung with a 25.1 percent share. The segment grew by 17.1% and showed a 3.7% growth as compared to the corresponding period in 2015. The figures were released by International Data Corporation on Friday 19 August 2016. The Smartphone market grew after showing disappointing negative results for two successive quarters. It was not a local phenomenon, and both global and Indian vendor’s shipment declined on a year over year basis while Chinese based vendor’s shipments grew by 75 percent. However, online sale of Smartphone fell to 28 % from 35% in the previous quarter.
The online shares dropped after regulators cracked their whip and enforced stringent norms to curb excessive discounts on online platforms. Many online focused vendors have expanded their presence in the retail segment leading to a healthy growth in offline sales.
Apple once again failed to make a dent in the Indian market, and a major contributor to its sales in the sub-continent was iPhone 5S.
Samsung ruled the roost and grabbed 25.1 % share of the Indian smartphone market and registered a 10.9 % sequential growth over the previous quarter and 15 percent growth from the corresponding period in 2015.
The second slot was occupied by Micromax and showed a healthy 19.9% increase as compared to the previous quarter. The third position went to Lenovo Group which also included Motorola, and it showed a 10.3% growth over the last quarter. The last quarter was not good for the company, but it regained its third position in the present quarter. Intex has slipped to the fourth position as its sales dropped by 9.8% and by 30.1% as compared to 2015 for the corresponding period. Reliance Jio continued as the fifth largest smartphone vendor with a growth of 12.3% sequential growth in second quarter of 2016.
Worldwide Smartphone is expected to grow by 7% as compared to 14.4% in 2015. The global sales of smartphones are slowing down, and a double-digit growth will be history. Most markets in North America and Europe has been penetrated to the point of saturation, and the only bright spot is Indian subcontinent which is growing at a breakneck speed.
