Samsung India’s smartphone market share reportedly slipping
Samsung, which has been the market leader in the smartphone business for a while, seems to be slowly losing its grip, giving way to some indigenous companies.
The cellphone market in India has entered a new stage of flux, as according to reports, Samsung’s grip on the urban smartphone market has started to slip, with some unexpected changes coming in.
In a retail smartphone study conducted by a market research firm and quoted by Business Standard, it would seem that though Samsung is still at the top of the cellphone game, but that the number of units it has been selling has seen a consistent decline in the last few months, dropping from 46.4 percent units in July 2012 to 35.8 percent in December 2012. On the other hand, Apple’s singular handset the iPhone 5, doubled its market share from 3.3 percent to 6.7 percent. This appears to be all thanks to Apple’s aggressive push on a new marketing strategy, offering its devices at monthly installments, making them a lot easier to own.
However, it’s not the iPhone that’s digging into Samsung’s pockets, but the local manufacturers like Micromax, Karbonn and Lava that are posing a real threat. The trio of manufacturers are gaining market share very quickly thanks to the budget market they are targeting, which happens to be the large chunk of the Indian consumers. In just a few months, the three companies have tripled their combined market share from 4.2 percent to 12.1 percent. This entire growth comes straight out of Samsung’s kitty, which does not seem to be fairing too well in the budget segment.
Now with three new mobile operating systems, Ubuntu Touch OS, Firefox OS and Tizen 2.0 coming out soon, we’re pretty sure that market shares are going to be switching around a lot more before we start seeing a trend settle in. Till then, we will just keep our eyes peeled.
Source: Business Standard