CMR India: 65.9 million mobile phones were shipped in India in Q2 2016

199IT original compilation

In the second quarter, both feature phones and smartphones showed an upward trend in the Indian market.

• Samsung, Micromax and Intex dominate the Indian mobile phone market, both feature phones and smartphones;
• LYF shipments continued to grow, ranking fifth in the smartphone market;
• Itel, owned by Transsion Holding, accounts for 2% of the feature phone market;
• Some Chinese brands have entered the top 20 feature phone shipments in India;
• Mobile phone shipments will further increase in the third quarter, mainly due to the increase in disposable income and the government's implementation of employee and pension systems.

The Indian mobile phone market continued to maintain healthy development in the second quarter of 2016, with shipments of both smartphones and feature phones increasing.

In the second quarter, India shipped 65.9 million mobile phones, of which feature phones accounted for 56.5%, a slight increase from the previous quarter (54.9%).

Smartphone shipments in India are expected to exceed 75 million units for the first time in the third quarter, mainly due to the impact of the festive season, growing disposable income, new product launches and fierce competition among operators.

Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Telecom Analyst, CMR, commented, “We are now seeing a clear split between new and old phone users. Telecom services data shows that new users are driving the adoption of feature phones in remote areas of India, while old users are contributing more to phone upgrades. Those who bought smartphones in 2013 and 2014 will start upgrading their smartphones. At the same time, feature phones will further grow as mobile base stations cover rural areas.”

Faisal added, “We are now seeing Chinese brands copying their smartphone development strategy to the Indian feature phone market, which is why Chinese feature phone brands are growing rapidly in India.”

In terms of smartphones, the report shows that shipments of low-end smartphones (priced below INR 2,000) grew by more than 200% in the second quarter, and sales of smartphones priced above INR 15,000 also showed strong growth.

Shipments of premium smartphones (priced above Rs 20,000) grew 35% in the second quarter, with Oppo, LeEco, Asus, LG and Huawei accounting for the largest share.

199IT.com Originally compiled from: CMR India. Please do not reprint without authorization