Samsung Retains Indian Smartphone Market Lead, Micromax Sees Sharp Drop: Counterpoint

The Q1 2015 Indian mobile market report by Counterpoint Technology Market Research places Samsung ahead of Micromax in smartphone shipments. The report added the smartphone market in India has registered a 21 percent year-over-year increase and 8 percent quarter-over-quarter increase in terms of shipments in the period.

The overall mobile market, which includes feature phones as well has dropped by 3 percent YoY and 15 percent QoQ. As per the report, feature phone shipments have dropped 13 percent YoY and 19 percent QoQ. "This is the second consecutive quarter where total mobile phone shipments in India registered a decline," added the report.

As per Counterpoint, Samsung once again led both the overall mobile phone market and the smartphone market in terms of shipments, with a market share of 18.2 percent and 27.8 percent respectively. Micromax on the other hand had a 12.2 percent share of overall mobile phone shipments, and 15.3 percent share of smartphone shipments - a steep drop from 14.2 percent (28 percent drop QoQ) and 19.5 percent (26 percent drop QoQ) in the previous quarter.

Microsoft was in third place for mobile phone shipments, at 9.8 percent share, but not part of the top five in smartphone shipments. Intex on the other hand was fourth in overall mobile phone shipments, with a 8.7 percent share, while it was in third place for smartphone shipments, with a 9.4 percent share. Lava (excluding Xolo) rounded off the top five in terms of mobile phone shipments, with a 8.1 percent share, while it had the fourth place in smartphone shipments, with a 5.4 percent share. Lenovo (including Motorola in Q1 2015) claimed the fifth spot in smartphone shipments in the period, with a 5.2 percent share.

As per the firm, Micromax's Yu Televentures subsidiary would need to launch more models in various price bands to match Xiaomi and Motorola's scale. The research report furthermore suggests that while Xiaomi shipments declined in this quarter, the Chinese company managed to retain a strong presence in the 4G smartphone segment with its Redmi Note 4G and Redmi 2 handset. Apple and Microsoft on the other hand fared well during the quarter. Notably, Microsoft Lumia shipment rose by 20 percent, which also puts India alongside Italy, France and other European countries where the Lumia sales are going strong. The company performed well in the mid-range segment in India, especially with the Lumia 535.

Counterpoint notes that Apple's iPhone shipments remained strong during the quarter due to a strong marketing push, buybacks schemes and more. The Cupertino-based vendor is only a few thousand units short of achieving a landmark feat of crossing 1 million unit sales in the six months of its fiscal year since October 2014 - something the market research firm took almost twelve months to manage in the last fiscal.

Speaking about the state of mobile manufacturing in India, Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint, said, "There has been significant push by Indian government for 'Make in India', and it seems like almost every of the top 10 mobile phone player has expressed their intentions toward setting up a manufacturing plant in India. However, we believe the real 'Make in India' developments are still a good 12-18 months away due to the lack of component suppliers' ecosystem. Players like Samsung & Micromax which are already assembling phones in India are well positioned to take advantage of early moves to local manufacturing as compared to other players."