Smartphones are losing its charm in India. Here is why

Though Samsung smartphones are still in demand and are still at no.1 position in the Indian smartphone market, the overall smartphone market in India is shrinking. According to an Economic Times report, Indian smartphone market shrinked 7% successively from January to March quarter 2015.

The financial daily quotes a CyberMedia Research released on Tuesday, which mentioned that India’s mobile handsets market has declined 15% in terms of overall shipments over Q4 2014, to 53 million mobile handsets of which, 37% (19.5 million) were smartphones.

They further said that featurephone shipments declined 18% sequentially.

However, Samsung's share has increased in the smartphones segment at 27.9%, up from 23.7%in Q4 of 2014. It got a higher market share in featurephones during the first quarter of 2015 as compared to the previous quarter.

No.2 Micromax has registered a decline to 12.1% in terms overall mobile handset shipments, while in the smartphones segment its market share was 16.2% as compared to 14% and 17.8% in Q4 2014, respectively.

"What is worrisome for the brand is its widening gap with Samsung, the market leader," the research firm said.

Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, Telecoms Research at CMR said: "With major announcements of new handsets and entry of some new brands happening in a big way in 4Q CY 2014, there wasn't really something very exciting in the market for customers that could push up sales in 1Q CY 2015. At the same time, change in duty structure and the consequent impact on the supply chain due to the Chinese New Year festivities contributed to the market contraction."

The third player Microsoft consolidated its position with 9.6% share in Q1 CY 2015, compared to 10.8% in the previous quarter for the overall mobile handsets market.

(Image: Reuters)