Micromax leads smartphone market in India.
India being the third largest market in smartphone making after China and the Unites States, the smartphone sales and competition between different consumer electronics companies in the country has increased manifold in the recent years.
The domestic smartphone vendor Micromax has taken over the market share in smartphone shipments in India especially in the October to December 2014 quarter, as it now shares 22 percent market share, more than Samsung’s 20 percent.
Micromax Gold
A research firm Canalys has confirmed the report, saying that “Micromax has remarkably ousted Samsung to become the first domestic vendor to take the top spot in the Indian smartphone market, the third largest in the world.”
The probable reason for exceeding sales of Micromax seems to be the budget deals it offers like Canvas Nitro and Canvas Hue that come in the range of INR 9000- 12000, thus gaining much popularity and targeting more and more consumers.
Micromax Canvas Hue
Micromax, Samsung, Karbonn and Lava have sold the maximum number of smartphones in the last quarter with a total sale of 21.6 million units of smartphones. The Canalys report published on 3rd February shows that the Indian smartphone market has recorded a 90 percent annual growth than the previous year.
23 percent of the devices shipped were priced under Rupees 6000 while 41 percent of smartphones fell in the Rupees 6000-12000 bracket.
Micromax’s performance was partly due to its “continuing appeal to mobile phone users upgrading to smartphones”, according to Canalys. As smartphones are coming up with more and more attractive features, more and more consumers are on the lookout for upgrading their basic phones to low-budget smartphones.
The home-grown brand has created a new record for itself as this is the first time that a domestic vendor has made its mark among the first position in India.
As a Canalys analyst, Rushabh Doshi reported to The Hindu, “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”, the domestic smartphone seller has catered to the regional masses of the country and the local language issues to sell its brand and flagship products apart from the price and other features of the phones.
Certainly, people with mid-level income are lured towards these low-priced devices with attractive and user-friendly features.
Samsung, on the other hand, is facing tough competition from Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and also from Motorola and Xiaomi (with Xiaomi Redmi 1S and Redmi Note 4G in the rage now), not to mention the rivalry with Apple over the years. The number of Samsung phones in the Indian market has also reduced its share gradually.
iPhone’s increased sales in Russia, China, India and Brazil as well as in the US in the fourth quarter of 2014 has remarkably put Apple much before Samsung as per International Data Corporation (IDC).
Though Samsung Galaxy Grand series and the recent Samsung Galaxy Note Edge have gained much popularity in the Indian market off late, however, the South Korean company is eventually losing on its grip on the Indian consumer’s pockets.
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
China has a different story to tell altogether where Xiaomi and Apple have taken the top two position in smartphone sale, followed by Samsung. U.S. too ensures that Samsung is not the ace as most consumers use and buy Apple. However, Samsung denies the Canalys report and instead quoted a research firm called GfK that has shown Samsung’s volume market share to be 34.3 percent in quarter 4, 2014, and its value share to be 40.2 percent unlike 20 percent or 4.4 million units of regional sales as accounted by Canalys. Samsung proclaims its market share to be “more than double” of Micromax and refuted Canalys report saying that they are unsure of Canalys’ data accuracy, while GfK numbers are more scientific and are based on the actual retail sales.
While the figures by different research firms are contradictory and conflicting, both the brands Micromax and Samsung are up to the neck in battling out to be the best and most used Smartphone Company.
While the handset market is mushrooming in the country, we might not be shocked if Micromax or Samsung come up with a direct advertisement that is a counter attack or a spoof on the other brand!
