Samsung displaced as India’s top mobile vendor, but retains lead on smartphone shipments

Samsung recently released a disappointing earnings report, and just lost its position as the top smartphone vendor in China during the last quarter. You know what they say, bad news comes in threes — sure enough, a new report has shown that the Korean company has been toppled as India’s top mobile phone vendor.

Counterpoint Research’s latest findings claim that Micromax, the five-year old Indian company, shipped more devices than Samsung in India for the first time between May and July. Micromax’s share of the overall mobile market rose to 16.6 percent, from 14 percent the previous quarter, putting it ahead of Samsung’s 14 percent share.

There is a caveat, however. Micromax is top of the pile based on shipments of feature phones and smartphones combined. Samsung retained its lead on smartphone shipments alone. It’s dominant 25 percent share is more than six percent higher than Micromax’s tally.

Counterpoint Research estimates that shipments of feature phones declined by 16 percent in the last quarter, while smartphone numbers jumped 68 percent during the same period. That at least shows that Samsung is on the crest of the right wave in India, although feature phones still account for over 70 percent of shipments.

Elsewhere, Nokia (which now owned by Microsoft) has traditionally performed well in emerging markets but is struggling to replicate its feature phone success in India in the smartphone domain. The company accounts for 15 percent of feature phone shipments — a segment that Micromax now leads for the first time — yet its smartphone market share is a measly 4.3 percent, according to Counterpoint Research’s data.

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