Survey by Canalys Analyst.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: A survey conducted by Canalys Analyst claims that Micromax has pushed Samsung to the second spot in the Indian smartphone market, the third biggest in the world.
If the survey results are to be believed, Micromax has become the first domestic smartphone maker to top the position, thus making history in India. But, Samsung has rubbished the report, citing a study conducted by GfK, which crowns Samsung in the top of the list.
The Vice President of Marketing for Samsung’s Mobile business in India, Asim Warsi, said in a statement, “In the entire year 2014, we continued to lead the market with innovative and exciting offerings. Our volume market share in the smartphone market in the year was 35.7 percent, which is more than double than that of the next player, while our value share was 40.2 percent, which is more than four times the next player the GfK data is based on actual retail sales in 50,000-plus population cities.”
Canalys Analytics is a research firm that provides smart market insights to Telecom, IT companies, channel and service provider professionals around the world. According to its report, Micromax became the first in the list due to the increasing demand for budget smartphones in India that are priced at $150 – $200 (INR 9,000 to INR 12,000). Last year, Micromax launched a slew of smartphones in the budget segment, mainly targeting first-time smartphone users and the middle-class society in India. Canvas Nitro and Canvas Hue are the two successful budget level smartphone models released by Micromax in 2014.
Rushabh Doshi of Canalys Analyst said, ‘Canalys believes catering to local market preferences will become increasingly important. Micromax has been quicker than its competitors to improve the appeal of devices, for example, by including a wide variety of local languages on its Unite phones. Lava, another domestic vendor, has launched devices that cater to the preference for greater battery life – in this case, a couple of days. But vital to the success is selling these handsets at low price points to appeal to the bulging mid-level income market in India.”
The graph released by Canalys Analyst also shows Lava and other Indian smartphone manufacturers performing better in Q4 of 2014 with Karbonn and Lava in the third and fourth positions, respectively.