Research firm Canalys released a report
earlier this week that said India's
Micromax had overtaken Samsung in
terms of smartphone sales in Q4 2014.
This prompted Samsung to issue a
release citing another survey indicating i
was still in the lead. Now, another
research firm has released its own report
that supports Samsung's claims.
Counterpoint Research has released its
Q4 2014 report on the Indian
smartphone market. Contradicting
Canalys' findings, Counterpoint reports
that Samsung retains the smartphone
crown in India in terms of shipments,
with a comfortable lead over Micromax.
As per Counterpoint's report , Samsung
shipped 27.4 percent of smartphones in
the country in Q4 2014, while Micromax
shipped 19.5 percent. A surprise entrant
to the top five was Intex, which claimed
the third spot with a 6.5 percent share,
followed by Lava at 5.1 percent, and
Lenovo (including Motorola ) at 4.7
percent, the agency said.
(Also see :
Samsung Disputes Indian Smartphone Market Share Report, Says It's Still on Top )
The remaining 36.8 percent of the
smartphones were shipped by other
manufacturers, including Karbonn,
Xiaomi, Sony, and others. Counterpoint
found that Micromax's shipments grew
75 percent year-on-year, but declined
from Q3 2014.
Counterpoint also noted that Intex
entered the top five smartphone vendor
rankings for the first time in the quarter,
and said the firm enjoyed a strong
demand in sub-$100 (Rs. 6,000)
smartphone segment especially for its
Aqua 3G and Y Pro models.
Xiaomi, missing from the top five
smartphone vendor list in Q4, saw its
shipments grow almost 250 percent
quarter-on-quarter. Counterpoint added
that the two online-only brands, Xiaomi
and Motorola, crossed the 1 million and
3 million mark in terms of cumulative
shipments since their respective entry
into the Indian market, matching the
claims by the two companies .
Counterpoint added that Apple's iPhone
shipments in India touched half a millio
units for the first time in a quarter, base
on the strong demand for the iPhone 6
and iPhone 6 Plus.
As for overall mobile phone (including
feature phones) shipments, Samsung
once again was on top in Q4, with the
South Korean giant shipping 16.1
percent of the phones in the country in
that period. Micromax followed at 14.4
percent, ahead of Microsoft (with its
Nokia brand) at 11 percent, Lava at 7.4
percent, and Intex at 6.7 percent. Other
manufacturers made up the remaining 4
percent.
Finally, detailing the overall growth of th
Indian mobile phone market,
Counterpoint said it grew 6 percent year-
on-year, but declined since the last
quarter on account of a mixed
seasonality during Q4. Smartphone
shipments stood close to 22 million in Q
2014, taking the 2014 total close to 80
million units for the first time, and
contributing close to 32 percent of the
global smartphone shipments in the year.
Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst at
Counterpoint Research, said of the trend
of the growth of domestic handset
manufacturers in India, Bangladesh, an
Indonesia, "While the vendors looking to
expand their smartphone strategy beyon
China, it is interesting to note that
domestic brands occupy strong position
in these three markets by capturing a
share of 62 percent, 52 percent and 50
percent in Bangladesh, India and
Indonesia respectively. In such a
scenario a new vendor entering these
geographies must play on the strength o
regional brands which primarily is their
distribution reach and price
competitiveness."
Samsung Still Leading Micromax in Indian Smartphone Market, Intex Third: Counterpoint | NDTV Gadgets
