Demand for 3G smartphones grows in India: Report
Demand for smartphones, including the 3G enabled ones, has continued to grow in the country, says the mobile market review for the Q1 2012 conducted by CyberMedia Research. The report further says the strong pickup in demand is likely to benefit mobile operators, which have made heavy investments in expanding 3G services across the country in last few months.
The report says the number of 3G phones shipped to distributors and dealers in March 2012 soared to 4.7 million, an impressive 34.3 percent growth. The report highlights the share of 3G phones helped growth in the mobile handset market. They accounted for a 9.4 percent of the total shipments in the quarter ending March 2012, up from a 7.6 percent share registered during the same period a year ago. Overall, total smartphones shipment rose by 17.4 percent to 2.7 millions in Q1 2012.
Tarun Pathak, a telecoms analysts with Cybermedia Research, is quoted as saying, “With the recently announced reduction in tariffs of 3G services by as much as 70% by leading India telecom service providers, the market for both 3G-enabled devices and mobile broadband-driven content is likely to see an upward trend in the forthcoming quarters,”
Multi-SIM devices have continued to be popular among Indian customers, as they constitute the two-thirds of the total sales. Finnish handset maker Nokia, which made a relatively late entry to the dual-SIM segment, rules the overall mobile phone market with a 23 percent share, while Samsung stands at second position with 14.1 percent. The Indian manufacturer Micromax is also in the fray with 5.8 percent share, and is in the third position.
“Currently, large, international players like Nokia and RIM, as well as relatively new entrants like Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Spice are faced with the challenge to enhance their portfolio of products, models and services, to stay relevant and profitable in the long run,” added Naveen Mishra, lead analyst, Telecoms Practice, Cybermedia Research.
The overall India mobile handsets market registered sales of 50.2 million units during January-March 2012, up 9.1 per cent year-on-year
Source: Times of India
Also read,
- 8 percent of Indian mobile users prefer multiple SIM cards
- Indians are more active smartphone users than Americans
- Indians prefer e-mails over social networking for online communication