According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the overall Indian mobile phone market stood at close-to 61.07 million units in 1Q 2014 which is a 10% quarter-on-quarter dip and a mere 1% year-on-year growth. The dip in the overall mobile phone market shipments can be attributed to the 18% decline in the feature phone shipments from 4Q 2013 to 1Q 2014. This was offset by the smartphone market, where units shipped grew by close-to 17% in 1Q 2014 compared to 4Q 2013. The consistent growth in the smartphone market is driven by enhanced consumer preference for smart devices and narrowing price differences.
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India was the highest-growing market in Asia-Pacific with a year-on-year smartphone shipment growth of over 186% in 1Q 2014.The vast majority of the country's user base migrated to smartphones from feature phones and, as a result, Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets like China which registered a year-on-year growth of 31% in 1Q 2014.
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The share of feature phones in the overall market further slipped to 71% in 1Q 2014 which is a considerable decrease from 90% share in 1Q 2013."As more vendors continue to launch low-priced smartphone models, the price gap between feature phones and smartphones will be narrowed, driving rampant user migration in the price-sensitive Indian market," said Manasi Yadav, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.
The Indian smartphone market grew by a whopping 186% year-on-year in 1Q 2014. According to the IDC Asia-Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker (excluding Japan), vendors shipped a total of 17.59 million smartphones in 1Q 2014 compared to 6.14 million units in the same period of 2013. The shipment contribution of "phablets" (which IDC defines as 5.5 inch-6.99 inch screen size smartphones) in 1Q 2014 was noted to be around 5% of the overall market. The category grew by 125% in 1Q 2014 in terms of sheer volume over 4Q 2013. The primary reason behind this trend is the launch of low-end phablets by international and local vendors alike.
