Nokia tops smartphone sales in India: Report

NEW DELHI: Total mobile handset shipments in India touched nearly 166 million units during the first eleven months of the 2011 calendar year, with Finnish handset maker Nokia accounting for a 30.7 per cent slice of the market, according to a CyberMedia Research report.

The overall shipments included 14.4 million feature phones and 1.07 million smartphones, according to the India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review for November, 2011, released today by CyberMedia Research.

The report shows that Nokia led the Indian mobile handset market in terms of shipments between January and November, 2011, with a 30.7 per cent share, followed by Samsung with 14.9 per cent and Micromax with 5 per cent.

Nokia remained the leader in both the feature and smartphone segments, accounting for 30.2 per cent and 38.4 per cent, respectively, of the market.

According to the report, smartphone shipments during the period stood at approximately 10 million. Samsung and BlackBerry smartphone-maker Research In Motion were the second and third largest players in the smartphone segment with a 27.5 per cent and 15.5 per cent market share, respectively.

However, there was a change in the market share of these companies during November.

As per data on shipments during the month of November, around 15.47 million phones were shipped, including 14.4 million feature phones and 1.07 million smartphones.

Nokia retained its leadership position with a 28 per cent share, followed by Samsung at second position with 12 per cent and Micromax at third position with 4 per cent.

"A new trend that is becoming visible is the launch of dual-SIM smartphones by vendors," Tarun Pathak, Analyst, Monthly Mobile Phones Market Review Programme, CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice, said in a statement.

Multi-SIM mobile handset shipments accounted for 54 per cent of the total India mobile handsets market during the month, he said.

Total 3G phone shipments touched 15.5 million in the first eleven months of the 2011 calendar year, with close to 224 models launched by 26 vendors. In November, 2011, 3G phone shipments constituted 8.9 per cent of total mobile device shipments in the country, the report said.

"With the increasing share of 3G phones in the market, the stage is set for customers to experience the benefits of 3G services. However, currently, the user experience on 3G networks has been constrained due to network quality issues faced by subscribers," Lead Analyst Naveen Mishra at CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice said.