Handset sales flat at 102 m in ’09; Nokia far ahead of peers

BANGALORE: India’s mobile handset market remained flat in the calendar year 2009 to register sales of 101.54 million units, mainly due to lower sales in the first six months (January-June), according to research firm IDC. Finnish handset maker Nokia had the largest share of 54.1% in terms of units sold during 2009. Korean companies Samsung with a 9.7% share and LG with a 6.4% share for the year ended December 31, 2009, were at number two and number three spots, respectively.

The market showed signs of revival in the fourth quarter (October-December) of 2009 to record a year-on-year (Q4 2009 over Q4 2008) a growth of 2.3% to touch 28.36 million units, according to IDC India. Overall, for 2009, new vendors registered a combined market share of 12.3% in terms of total India mobile handset sales.

The number of such new vendors in the India mobile handsets market grew to 28 and they together garnered 17.5% of the total sales for the first time during the October-December 2009 quarter. This represented a steady growth from only five new vendors representing a 0.9% combined share of units sold in the January-March 2008 quarter.

According to Naveen Mishra, lead analyst, Mobile Handsets Research, IDC India, “The mobile handsets market got even more crowded and fragmented at the lower-and mid-market segments with the rise of ‘copycat’ models that have looks and aesthetics resembling those of high-end smartphones. These ‘copycat’ look-alikes are often available for as little as one-tenth of the average sales value (ASV) of a smartphone.”

“This trend is expected to continue and the market will witness launch of more look-alikes, following the launch of aspirational value smartphone models by major vendors,”IDC said.