There has been strong rise in the number of mobile phones that were shipped to India during the last year in comparison to that, that were shipped during the year 2010.
The total number of mobile shipment grew by 10 percent during 2011. The total number of mobile phones that were shipped to India during 2011 was 183.4 million while the number of mobile phones that were shipped during 2010 was 166.5 million.
There was a huge increase in the smartphone segment during 2011. The growth that the smartphone segment saw was 87 percent. Total smartphones that were shipped stood at 11.2 million in 2011 as compared to 6 million units that were shipped during 2010. There was also increase in shipments of feature phones. There was a growth of 7 percent in the feature phones department. The total shipments that were carried out in 2011 for feature phones was 172.2 million units while the same figure for 2010 stood at 160.5 million units.
If we compare all the leading mobile companies that are operating in India, Nokia emerged as the market leader with 31 percent share of the overall mobile phone segment. This was followed by Samsung that had 15 percent of the overall market. Micromax emerged as the third company in terms of market share in terms of sales (unit shipments) which had 5 percent of the market share. All the above said figures are for the year 2011.
For the year 2011, a total of 150 smartphone models were alone launched in India by over 30 vendors. In the smartphone segment also, Nokia emerged as market leader by capturing 38 percent of the total smartphone market. This was followed by Samsung capturing 28 percent of the market share. The third spot was taken by RIM which had 15 percent of the market share.
According to Naveen Mishra, Lead Telecoms Analyst at CyberMedia Research, “In 2012, the proportion of smartphones with extended features like NFC and 3D gaming is likely to increase. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Nokia take their partnership to the next level with a new range of smart devices based on the Windows 7.5 Mango OS platform.”
There has been rise in the dual-SIM portfolio of almost all the companies. This year, the dual-SIM and multi-SIM accounted for around 57 percent of total shipments. The multi-SIM category saw an year-on-year increase of 61 percent.
Tarun Pathak from CyberMedia said that, “The innovative products in the Finnish vendor’s portfolio helped Nokia become the market leader in the category”. There was a massive rise in the 3G handsets that were shipped. There was a year on year growth of about 153 percent in this category. In 2011, around 250 handsets that were 3G enabled hit the market from around 30 different vendors. These phones accounted for nearly 18 million units.
Naveen Mishra said that, “3G is a relatively new phenomenon in India with active subscribers estimated at only 15 million as of December 2011. This may be directly attributed to the lack of 3G network availability in many locations and the poor quality of service experienced by existing subscribers.”
Let us see how the story goes for the year 2012. But looking at the trend, one can easily predict that the total volume of mobiles is bound to increase.