India's homegrown handset manufacturer Micromax has overtaken Samsung as the country's largest handset maker. As per the data released by Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Micromax was leading with a market share of 16.6% for the period of April-June as compared to 14.4% share of Samsung.
Market share of Micromax jumped from 13% in the January-March quarter. Nokia settled as the third largest handset maker at 10.9%, while another Indian manufacturer Karbonn captured a share of 9.5% during the period.
In the smartphone segment, Samsung however continued to top the table with a share of 25.3% in April-June quarter, followed by Micromax and Karbonn at 19.1% and 5.9% market share, respectively.
Motorola, which re-entered the Indian market with an exclusive tie-up with e-commece website Flipkart, bagged the fourth position in this category with a market share of 4.3%, overtaking Nokia which closed at 4% during the quarter under review.
As per the data, overall mobile phone market grew a modest 2% annually, while the smartphone segment grew 68% annually as demand for feature phones fell 16% annually in the three-month period.
"Majority of growth in smartphone segment during the quarter was driven by long tail of local and other Asian brands operating in this huge market," said the release issued by Counterpoint Technology Market Research.
"Micromax has widened the gap with the third largest smartphone player as the race for the third place is up for grabs with fierce competition between Karbonn, Motorola, Celkon, Nokia, Apple and Sony," it added.
Indian brands together captured more than two-thirds of the total mobile phone shipments and more than half of the smartphone shipments. According to the research agency, Micromax globally has also jumped up the rankings becoming the tenth largest handset brand in terms of mobile phone shipment volumes.
As per the experts, the competition is expected to intensify further in the smartphone segment with the entry of Asian players like Xiaomi, Gionee, Huawei and Asus as they offer premium-like hardware at an aggressive price-point attracting young tech-savvy but price-conscious urban buyers.
"However, these brands will have to work hard on their brand awareness, distribution and service network to continue the growth beyond the early spike in demand in this very important mobile phone market," said Neil Shah, research director, Devices & Ecosystems at Counterpoint Research, in a statement.
"The surprise performance was from Motorola thanks to its attractive but leaner portfolio of Moto X/G/E and go-to-market strategy. The brand which could soon be part of Lenovo has built a strong base in the high volume India smartphone market, entering the top five rankings surpassing Nokia, Apple, Sony and others," he added.
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