New Delhi: Samsung may still be the numero uno in the multi-billion dollar Indian smartphone market, but it may be standing on shaky grounds as homegrown handset maker Micromax offers a tough challenge to the Korean giant.
According to research firm IDC, Samsung had a 29 percent share of the Indian smartphone market in the April-June 2014 quarter. The company had a 35 percent share in the previous quarter (Q1 2014).
On the other hand, Micromax has seen its market share grow from 15 percent in Q1 2014 to 18 percent in April-June 2014 quarter.
"While Samsung has held on to its leadership position in the market, it is noteworthy that Micromax is growing faster. Samsung needs to continue to address the low-end of the market aggressively, and also needs a blockbuster product at the high end to regain momentum," IDC Vice President and General Manager South Asia Jaideep said.
Given the current growth rates, there is a real possibility of seeing vendor positions change in the remaining quarters this year, he added.
"Micromax not only toppled Nokia to clinch the second spot but also created a gap between the second and the third spot," IDC said.
Earlier this month, research firm Counterpoint, Micromax took the lead over Samsung in the Indian mobile phone market in April-June quarter of 2014.
"Micromax became the leading mobile phone supplier brand in India in Q2 2014 for the first time ever surpassing Samsung capturing 17 percent market share up from 13 percent in Q1 2014," Counterpoint Research said.
Micromax was also the second largest smartphone vendor closing in on Samsung, capturing 19 percent share in this fast growing segment, it added.
In mobiles phones, Samsung's market share stood at 14.4 percent, while in smartphones the firm still retained the market leader spot with 25.3 percent share, it said.
"Indian brands together captured more than two-thirds of the total mobile phone shipments and more than half of the smartphone shipments," Counterpoint's analyst Neil Shah said.
Karbonn had an eight percent share in Q2 (down from 10 percent in Q1 2014), while Lava's share remained same at six percent.
The overall smartphone market in India, which is witnessing the highest growth in Asia Pacific, grew 84 percent year-on-year in April-June 2014 to 18.42 million units from 10.02 million units (in April-June 2013 quarter).
Among the top five vendors, Micromax (18 percent) and Lava (54 percent) were the only ones to have outstripped the market growth.
IDC further said a new entry-level price point is being breached by the Indian home grown vendors every quarter.
"These devices are not equipped with high end specifications and RAM is typically 256 MB. This ultra low cost segment may not sound a viable option to the repeat buyers, but it works well on the targeted segment," IDC India Senior Market Analyst Karan Thakkar said.
IDC believes the potential for growth in the smartphone market is still "quite high" as 71 percent of the market continues to be on feature phones.
Also, the festive season ahead and continuous run rate buying from the consumer is expected to fuel growth in the smartphone segment.
