CMR report too states that Samsung is still the king of Indian smartphone market

Are you still wondering who is the king of the smartphone in India? In the last week, the research agency Canalys revealed that, Indian handset vendor Micromax accounted for 22% of total shipments in India for Q4 2014 and is thus the leading smartphone vendor of the country. This claim was refuted by Samsung, who quoted GfK report to prove that it continues to be kingpin of the Indian smartphone arena. As per GfK report, in the October-December 2014 quarter Samsung commanded 34.3% volume market share and the value market share was 35.8%.

Now, CyberMedia Research (CMR), too has come out with its numbers on the mobile phone market in India and as per this report, although Samsung still leads India’s fast-growing mobile market, it is conceding space to its rivals like Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Microsoft (Nokia).

This report claims that, Samsung’s market share declined to 16.5% in December 2014 from 20.3% in January 2014. It further stated that India’s mobile handsets market grew by 4% last year in terms of shipments. Out of this, the Korean handset giant accounted for 16.5% of the shipments, while Micromax and Microsoft (Nokia) captured 13.3% each.

However, Samsung was seen to be losing its earlier firm grip on market, as its share of the market showed a downward trend during the year, as compared to Micromax that gained primarily in April-June 2014, but then continued to remain flat during the rest of the year,” CMR said in a press release.

In 2014, about 77 million smartphones were shipped in the country, resulting in the growth of the smartphone segment by 46% as compared to the previous year.

Faisal Kawoosa, CMR lead analyst, telecoms practice, said, “2014 proved to be a path-breaking year for the India mobile phones market, essentially in terms of high proportion of smartphones shipped. A lot of consumer enthusiasm was seen in terms of launch of new phone models and brands, unique features and a significant change in sales strategies of vendors.”