India is 3rd biggest smartphone market in 2nd Q; Samsung and Micromax hold >50%

Market researcher Canalys finds India stood out as second biggest market in 2nd quarter of 2013 in smart phone shipments. The shipment growth in India is fastest of the major markets by 129% to hit 9.0 million and make it the world’s third largest smart phone market, as per Canalys. Canalys says ‘Samsung has invested heavily in its brand and channel relationships over a number of years, which has given it a big advantage over many of its international competitors. Samsung took over a third of the Indian market this quarter, followed by local vendor Micromax at 22%. Karbonn, Sony and Nokia made up the top five,’ said Jessica Kwee, Canalys Analyst. ‘India is a market in transition, moving from feature phones to smart phones, and is a market that offers huge potential as hundreds of millions of users have yet to upgrade their feature phones. Domestic vendors, such as Micromax and Karbonn, are capitalizing on the popularity of their feature phones and are quicker to respond to local market demands, hence their current success.’ Canalys has reported a total of 238.1 million units of smart phones shipped in Q2, an impressive 50% year-on-year increase. Canalys finds Samsung and Apple grew their shipments by 55% and 20% respectively to maintain first and second place, both lost share to Chinese vendors. Lenovo, Yulong and Korean vendor LG completed the top five vendors. Co...