The India mobile handsets market continued to grow in the third quarter 2010 as well to record a quarter-on-quarter growth of 3.6 per cent to touch 40.08 million units in the quarter, according to market intelligence firm IDC’s India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker. The year 2010 is expected to end with total mobile handset sales of 155.9 million units.
The study further showed that the Finnish handset maker Nokia had the largest share of 31.5 per cent in terms of units shipped during 3Q 2010. Nokia was followed by the Chinese brand G’Five in terms of unit shipments market share and Korean handset manufacturer Samsung occupied the third slot.
The third quarter, meanwhile, saw a strong quarter-on-quarter growth in smartphone sales by 34.2 per cent and a year-on-year increase by 294.9 per cent. This clearly underscores the trend that India mobile handset consumers have started showing higher preference for adopting smartphones.
Further, smartphone prices continued to drop through the year and as competition increased, devices were made available by vendors at successively lower price points. So, while 80 per cent of total India smartphone sales were below the ASV (Average Sales Value) of Rs 18,000 in 2Q 2010, this proportion increased to 90 per cent in 3Q 2010.
"The India mobile handsets market got even more crowded and fragmented in the lower- and mid-market segments with the further entry of new players offering innovative models at attractive price points to lure buyers", stated Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President, Research, IDC India.
"The propensity to adopt feature phones and smartphones is greatest amongst the youth and business executive segments, whose purchase decisions are often driven by peer group influence and workplace usage patterns, as well as larger disposable incomes and willingness experiment with new technology platforms", he added.
The study also showed that Android gained acceptance as a mobile operating system and 9.4 per cent of smartphones shipped in 3Q 2010 were based on the Android as compared to 2.9 per cent in Q3 2009. The number of models with Android also increased to 19 in 3Q 2010 as compared to only 2 models in 3Q 2009.