According to the latest research from Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor service, for Q1 2015 (Jan-March), the overall India mobile phone market  declined of 3% Y/Y and Q/Q decline of 15%. However, the smartphone segment registered an Y/Y increase of 21% though Q/Q decline of 8%. Feature phone segment also saw a sharp decline with shipment volumes down 13% Y/Y and 19% Q/Q. This is the second consecutive quarter where total mobile phone shipments in India registered a decline.

The following are the key findings from the Counterpoint Research analysis of the competitive environment in India in 1Q 2015:

• The overall India mobile phone market declined by 3% Y/Y and 15% sequentially on account of seasonality and low sell-in during the quarter
• India remains the third largest smartphone market in the world and during 1Q 2015 shipped almost twice as many smartphones as shipped in Japan
• Smartphone shipments saw a Y/Y increase of 21% and a Q/Q decline of 8%. Smartphones contributed close to 37% of the overall shipments in 1Q 2015
• Samsung led the overall mobile phone market and the smartphone segment during the quarter with market shares of 18.2% and 27.8% respectively
• Samsung has used its distribution prowess to sell-in during the quarter as it executed aggressive smartphone launches during the quarter including the Tizen-based Z1
• Micromax maintained the second position in both overall mobile phone market and the smartphone segment, but it registered steep decline as the overall mobile phone shipments down 28% Q/Q and the smartphone shipments down 26% Q/Q
• Micromax’s new brand Yureka with the launch of its first Cyanogen powered LTE smartphone Yu started off well, but will need more models across price-bands to match the scale of Xiaomi and Motorola – both of which remained aggressive introducing new models during the quarter
• Continuing its momentum from Q4 2014, Intex retained its position among the top five vendors both in overall handset and smartphone rankings, capturing slightly under 9% of the overall market during the quarter. Demand for Intex products in the sub-$100 smartphone price band remains strong
• Lava excluding its sub-brand Xolo was also among the top five vendors in both overall mobile phone and the smartphone segment. The Lava IRIS series, especially the X1 smartphone, did well to put Lava marginally ahead of Lenovo-Motorola and thereby capturing the market’s 4^th position.
• Lenovo** raced to fifth position, primarily due to acquisition of Motorola, together capturing almost 5% of the Indian smartphone market during the quarter.
• Although Xiaomi smartphone shipments declined during the quarter the vendor managed to be among the leading 4G smartphone brands during the quarter, thanks to brisk sales of Mi Note 4G and Redmi 2 4G
• Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone shipments remained strong during the quarter thanks to its strong marketing push and enticing schemes such as buybacks and more. The Cupertino-based vendor is only a few thousand units short of achieving a land mark feat of crossing 1 million unit sales in the six months of its fiscal year since Oct 2014. An achievement that it took almost twelve months to manage in its last financial year.
• Microsoft Lumia shipments however were not affected by the weaker seasonality factor and grew by almost 20% thanks to a solid performance by its mid-segment Lumia portfolio – especially the Lumia 535
• India joins the countries in Europe like Italy, France and others where Microsoft Lumia traction is going strongly.
• There has been significant push by Indian government for “Make in India”, and it seems like almost every of the top 10 mobile phone player has expressed their intentions toward setting up a manufacturing plant in India. However, we believe the real “Make in India” developments are still a good 12-18 months away due to the lack of component suppliers’ ecosystem. Players like Samsung & Micromax which are already assembling phones in India are well positioned to take advantage of early moves to local manufacturing as compared to other players

 

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