Top 10 Indian mobile vendors revealed

Fall in India-specific revenues of mobile handset makers including Nokia, RIM and LG, led by de-growth in feature phone sales and lower average selling values pulled down industry-wide sales by five per cent to Rs. 31,215 crore in 2011-12, says a Voice&Data survey.

The survey said the mobile handset sales in India stood at Rs. 33,031 crore in the previous fiscal. It also said the main stay of domestic handset makers like Micromax and Spice (feature phones) saw negative growth, while the entry level smartphones of various companies saw a marginal rise.

The annual survey on Indian Telecom industry by CyberMedia group's journal Voice&Data attributes the total revenue drop to lower average selling values (ASVs) as well.

"Indian mobile phone brands that had hoped to make a mark by sourcing Chinese handsets and selling them only on the price plank were in for a big surprise. These players will have to quickly rethink their product, marketing and service strategy afresh to put their house in order," Voice&Data Group Editor Ibrahim Ahmad said.

India is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world. However, in the last few months, the growth rate has slowed down from monthly additions of 12-15 million to 7.99 million in May 2012.

As per the survey, Nokia retained its leadership with 38.2 percent share. However, its revenues have fallen 7.7 percent to Rs. 11,925 crore in 2011-12 from Rs. 12,929 crore in 2010-11.

The Finnish company lost market share in smartphones and multi-media segment to Samsung, HTC and Apple, among others, but made a headway in the dual SIM phones category, it said.

Korean handset giant Samsung, on the other hand, saw its revenues growing 38 percent to Rs. 7,891 crore in 2011-12 from Rs. 5,720 crore in the previous fiscal. It had a market share of 25.3 percent, thanks to its rich product portfolio based on Windows, Android and Bada operating systems, as per Voice&Data.

Samsung's Galaxy Note, a hybrid between smartphone and tablet was a trailblazer, selling 40,000 units each month since the launch in late 2011, the survey said. "As consumers look for applications beyond voice and SMS the market will see fight for high end feature phones and smart phones intensify further. Consumers can also look forward to steeper price drops and more features in the same price," Ahmad said.

Homegrown handset company Micromax ranked third on the list with revenues of Rs. 1,978 crore with a market share of 6.3 percent. Its revenues dipped 13 percent compared to the previous fiscal. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's (RIM) revenues dropped 25 percent to Rs. 1,460 crore. With a market share of 4.7 per cent, it ranked fourth in the list.

The steepest fall was seen in the revenues of LG, which fell by 57 per cent to Rs. 780 crore in 2011-12 from Rs 1,834 crore in 2010-11.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC, on the other hand, saw its revenues more than doubling to Rs. 923 crore in 2011-12 from Rs. 450 crore. Its market share stood at three percent.

Other key players in the Top 10 list include Spice (Rs. 790 crore), Huawei (Rs 760 crore) and G'Five (Rs 670 crore). It surveyed over 30 mobile handset firms -- both multi- national and Indian -- selling feature phones, multimedia phones, enterprise phones and smartphones in India.