The International Data Corporation on Tuesday said that 32.3 million smartphone units were shipped in India during the third quarter of 2016, the first ever time that shipments crossed the 30 million mark. The IDC’s Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report said that Samsung led the Indian smartphone market with a 23% share followed by the Lenovo group with a 9.6% share, The Financial Express reported.
Senior market analyst (client services) for IDC India, Karthik J, said the rise in the number of handsets shipped was because of preparations for the festive season as well as massive online sales conducted by e-commerce platforms. Shipments of 4G smartphones also grew 24.8% over the previous quarter, he said. “The roll-out of Reliance Jio has further increased the share of 4G-enabled smartphones in India,” he added, according to Hindustan Times. Micromax slipped to third position with a 32% decline in shipments over the previous quarter.
Market analyst for client devices Jaipal Singh said that the mobile vendor ecosystem in India was “going through a multi-dimensional transition,” with the plans of domestic companies being disrupted by investments from Chinese firms.
However, analysts said that consumer migration from feature phones to smartphones had slowed, even as the feature phone market declined by 12.4%. The market analysis group said that vendors were rethinking their distribution strategies by adopting measures such as “positioning more staff at forefronts” and presenting the “right mix of products in both online and offline channels”.
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