Lenovo-Motorola attains third spot in Indian smartphone market: Canalys

KOLKATA: Lenovo, along with its acquired Motorola brand, had combined shipments just short of 3 million units in India, up almost 60% year on year, moving them past Intex to take the third place in the Indian market, a just released report said.

The research by Canalys said all prominent Indian brands like Micromax, Intex, Karbonn and Lava suffered sequential declines in shipments.

While Micromax held on to the second place in the Indian market, its shipments fell by more than 20% due to inventory build-up in its distribution network, the research said.

Despite this, the Indian smartphone market saw a healthy double-digit percentage increase in shipments year on year. Samsung extended its lead at the top of the market, with its devices accounting for around a quarter of the market, Canalys noted.

"Local players are finding it tough to compete with global vendors on product quality, making it hard for them to push products into higher price bands," said Canalys Mobility analyst Rushabh Doshi.

Doshi said Chinese vendors such as Vivo and Xiaomi continue to make inroads with low-cost LTE smartphones.

"The growing importance of online retail has lowered barriers to entry, enabling vendors to grow quickly without having to invest time and resources in building a complex sales channel. Chinese vendors are instead investing heavily in marketing, building brand recognition and cementing their place in the market," said Doshi.