Globally, Smartphone Market grew 61% in 2011 with total shipment volumes reaching 491.4 million units in 2011, a whopping increase of over 304.7 million units in 2010! Smartphones are replacing features phones at much faster rate than expected, thanks to consistently falling pricing.
In comparison to Global Smartphone Market, growth in India is expected to be even higher – According to “India Smartphone Outlook for 2012” report released by Convergence Catalyst, India will witness 100% growth in 2012, with total smartphone shipments expected to reach 20 million units.
Indian Smartphone Vendor Market Share in 2011
It is interesting to note that Nokia’s still leads the Smartphone Market share, however, it has seen a major fall in 2011. Nokia lost about 50% of its market share from 60% at the start of the 2011 to sub 40% by the end of the year.
Samsung on the other hand has witnessed significant growth and has close to 30% of Indian Smartphone market share.
One thing to note is that Indian vendors like Micromax, Lava & others have not been able to replicate the same success in smartphone segment as they did for feature phones.
OS-wise Smartphone market share [2012 Forecast]
According to Convergence Catalyst, Android is expected to capture over half of Indian Smartphone Market Share by end of 2012.
Another Mobile OS, Bada, is also expected to gain significantly taking its Indian market share to 10.2%. On the other hand, Nokia is expected to halve to 23.3% in 2012. Blackberry is also expected to slide from 13.3% market share last year to 9.9% by end of this year.
Key Indian Smartphones trends for 2012
- Emergence of multiple SIM Smartphones – Samsung has already launched Dual-SIM Smartphones such as Galaxy Pro Duos and Wave Y Duos and is expected to launch Dual-SIM capability on it’s more popular lineup such as Galaxy Y and S II. As more India OEMs launch Smartphones, we expect to see more Dual-SIM smartphones in the market through them. We also expect devices that support both GSM and CDMA, especially in high end smartphones.
- Global players to capitalize their strengths in India – While OEMs such as Nokia and Blackberry have traumatic global challenges, they are expected to continue to be significant in India given their strong brand presence, distribution network and consumer affinity in India.
- Carriers to continue experimenting with contracts for Smartphones – In 2011, MTS launched a Smartphone (HTC Pulse) on contract for the first time with moderate success. This initiative has opened up the potential for other players and we expect a few other carriers to experiment with this model on an opportunistic basis to improve their competitive edge. [source]