Nokia No.1 in Indian mobile market

Driven by strong uptake of smartphones, mobile phone shipments to India grew by 10 per cent to 183.4 million units in 2011 against 166.5 million units in 2010, says a study.

According to a CyberMedia Research study, the smartphone segment grew 87 per cent to 11.2 million units in 2011 as

against 6 million units in the previous year. On the other hand, feature phone shipments increased seven per cent to 172.2 million units in 2011 from 160.5 million units in 2010.

Nokia retained its leadership position with 31 per cent share of the overall mobile phone segment, followed by Samsung at No 2 with 15 per cent and Micromax at No 3 with 5 per cent share in terms of sales (unit shipments) during 2011.

The Finnish firm was also numero uno in the smartphones segment with a 38 per cent share, followed by Samsung with 28 per cent share in 2011. RIM dropped to third place with a 15 per cent share, the study said. In 2011, the India smartphones market witnessed the launch of 150 models by over 30 vendors.

"In 2012, the proportion of smartphones with extended features like NFC and 3D gaming is likely to increase. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Nokia take their partnership to the next level with a new range of smart devices based on the Windows 7.5 Mango OS platform," CyberMedia Research Lead Telecoms Analyst Naveen Mishra said.

With established players like Nokia and Samsung expanding their dual-SIM portfolio, the multi-SIM category saw an year-on-year increase of 61 per cent in shipments and accounted for 57 per cent of the total shipments in 2011.

Nokia (13 per cent share) displaced G'Five to capture the top slot, while Korea's Samsung, with eight per cent share, pushed Micromax to the third slot.

"The innovative products in the Finnish vendor's portfolio helped Nokia become the market leader in the category," CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice Analyst Tarun Pathak said. The year 2011 also saw about 250 3G handsets from about 30 vendors hitting the market and accounted for nearly 18 million units, a year-on-year growth of 153 per cent.

Nokia again emerged as the market leader in this category, followed by Samsung and RIM. "3G is a relatively new phenomenon in India with active subscribers estimated at only 15 million as of December 2011. This may be directly attributed to the lack of 3G network availability in many locations and the poor quality of service experienced by existing subscribers," Mishra said.

It will be interesting to see how new alliances and offerings emerge from handset vendors, service providers and content developers to target mobile subscribers with innovative device plus data service bundles, he added.