Micromax outdoes Samsung And Leads India

Micromax overtakes Samsung as India's Pirmary handset vendor in Q2

Micromax has overhauled Samsung as India's leading handset vendor, capturing 16.6 % market share in the April-June period as against the Korean major's 14.4 %.

The duos were followed by Nokia and Karbonn with 10.9 % and 9.5 % shares respectively in the just ended quarter. In the previous quarter ended March 31, Samsung had controlled the overall market with 16.3 % share followed by Micromax with 13 %.

The overall mobile phone market grew a modest 2 % annually, while the smartphone segment grew 68 %. Falling demand for feature phones, which fell 16 % in the quarter, had weighed on overall sales.

In the smartphone segment, Micromax set its presence with 19 % share but remained the second largest Indian smartphone vendor. Samsung maintained its leadership in this segment with a 25.3 % market share.

A research firm said that Micromax had widened the gap with the third largest smartphone player as the race for the third place is up for grabs with ferocious competition between Karbonn, Motorola, Celkon, Nokia, Apple and Sony.

On Micromax's performance in the second quarter, Neil Shah, research director, Devices & Ecosystems at Counterpoint Research said, "This is the vendor which mobile industry will have to keep an eye on as it expands beyond domestic markets."

"The surprise recital was from Motorola thanks to its attractive but leaner portfolio of Moto X/G/E and go-to-market strategy. The brand which could soon be part of Lenovo has built a strong base in the high volume India smartphone market, entering the top five rankings surpassing Nokia, Apple, Sony and others," Shah said.

Karbonn is presently the third largest smartphone vendor with 5.9 % market share, followed by the resurgent Motorola, which grasped a significant 4.3 % share in the quarter, riding on the success of Moto E and Moto G smartphones.

Micromax also became the leading feature phone supplier overtaking Nokia for the first time with 15.2 % market share, while Nokia had 14.7 % market share at the end of the second quarter. Karbonn, Samsung and Lava held 11.4 %, 8.5 % and 7.3 % feature phone market share, respectively.

Globally, Micromax also jumped up the rankings becoming the 10th largest handset brand in terms of mobile phone shipment volumes, the research firm said.

"We will see intensified competition in the Indian smartphone space as Asian OEMs such as Xiaomi, Gionee, Huawei and Asus enter with premium-like hardware at an aggressive price-point attracting young tech-savvy but price-conscious urban buyers," Shah said.

"However, these brands will have to work hard on their brand awareness, distribution and service network to continue the growth beyond the early spike in demand in this very important mobile phone market".