Kolkata, Dec 1 (IANS): The festive season has pushed the Indian smartphone market with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 27 percent in Q3 2014 to propel it as the largest growing smartphone market in the APAC region.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the overall mobile market stood at 72.5 million units in Q3 2014, registering a 15 percent quarter-on-quarter growth and a 9 percent year-on-year growth.
"With 44 million units shipped in CY 2013 and the current market scenario hinting at 80 million plus shipments in CY 2014, we have a big chunk of end-user market which is awaiting refresh. To add to this, new initiatives on the 4G front are expected to be rolled out, which should spark up demand in the smartphone market in CY 2015," said Karan Thakkar, senior market analyst, IDC India.
However, phablets are hitting a stagnancy which has been one of the key reasons for consumers opting for smartphones, the IDC said.
"With 6 percent of the overall smartphone market, phablets are observed to be hitting a plateau. Smartphones are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference. However, consumers need larger screen sizes to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in CY 2015, we expect the phablets segment to pick up again," said Kiran Kumar, research manager, client devices, IDC India.
Interestingly, Micromax is fast crawling up to challenge Samsung, the market leader. Market share for Micromax stood at 20 percent in Q3, up by two percent from the previous quarter while Samsung's market share is 24 percent.
The Q3 results reveal the second consecutive quarter of over 80 percent year-on-year shipment growth for smartphones, reflecting robust end-user demand for the category in the devices market in India.
The share of smartphones in the overall mobile phone market stood at 32 percent in Q3 2014, which is a considerable increase over 19 percent in the same period a year ago.
According to the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 23.3 million smartphones in Q3 2014 compared to 12.8 million units in the same period of CY 2013.