India Beats USA to Become 2nd Largest Smartphone Market in the World!

India is now the second largest Smartphone market in the world!

Indian Smartphone Shipments grew a healthy 15% annually in Q4 2015 (Oct-Dec). During CY 2015, Indian smartphone shipments grew 23% YoY to cross the 100 Million units milestone according to latest report by Counterpoint Research.

Smartphone user base in India has grown to 220 million users by end of 2015, surpassing USA for the first time ever!

Highlights of Q4 2015 Smartphone Shipments

Smartphone Shipments have grown steadily in 2015, whereas feature phone shipments have fallen. In Q4, more than 40% of the mobile phones shipped were smartphones. With most telecom operators now starting to offer 4G services, LTE handsets were in demand with more than one in two smartphones shipped during the quarter being 4G LTE smartphones.

The Make in India initiative have reaped rich rewards for India as well – almost half of mobile phones sold during the quarter were “Made in India” with 20+ mobile phone brands now assembling their phones locally.

The report also points to the rise of Indian smartphone brands. Domestic brands such as Intex and Lava have considerably closed the gap with the second largest mobile phone or the number one domestic mobile phone brand Micromax.

In fact, a recent report by IDC claimed that Intex had beaten Micromax to becomes Largest Indian mobile handset company!

eCommerce is also playing a major role in growth of smartphones with one in three smartphones being sold through online channels during the year.

Accelerated Smartphone Growth in 2016

Given that the price of smartphones is coming down consistently, 2016 is expected to witness faster growth in shipments.

According to a recent CMR report, the average selling price (ASP) for a smartphone was Rs. 13,000 in 2013 which reduced to Rs. 10,700 by the end of 2015. All this price reduction has happened while retaining if not bettering the same set of specifications.

The smartphone manufacturers are now offering more for less.

It was just a matter of time before India surpassed USA, and now they have done it. This augurs well for Digital Indian initiative by the Government as well as various tech startups for whom Smartphones are key last mile connectivity devices.

Another important aspect is internet penetration – and even on that front, India is progressing at much faster pace. According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India was expected to have 402 million Internet users by the end of December 2015, and if we have crossed that milestone, we would have surpassed USA in that regards too!