India is the fastest growing smartphone market in Asia Pacific with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 27 percent in third quarter (July-September) of 2014, said a report by the International Data Corporation.
"The market observed exceptional growth owing to festive demand and recorded a new high in smartphone shipments in third quarter of 2014. As a result, Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region in terms of quarter-over-quarter growth," the report said Wednesday.
IDC is the global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.
The overall mobile phone market stood at 72.5 million units in Q3 - a 15 percent quarter-on-quarter growth and 9 percent year-on-year growth.
According to Asia Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker (excluding Japan), vendors shipped a total of 23.3 million smartphones in third quarter 2014 compared to 12.8 million units in the same period of 2013.
"With 6 percent contribution in the overall smartphone market, 'phablets' (which IDC defines as 5.5 inches - 6.99 inches screen size smartphones) are observed to be hitting a plateau. On the other hand smartphone with screen size between 4.5 inches and 5.5 inches are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference.
"Consumer need higher screen size phone to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in 2015, we expect 'phablets' segment to pick up again," said Kiran Kumar, research manager, client devices, IDC India.
Samsung with 24 percent market share continues to be the market leader in the smartphone segment, followed by Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Motorola.
