An extraordinary 26.5m smartphones were shipped to India in the second quarter of 2015, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
This figure, revealed in IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker confirms a 44% increase on the 18.4m that were transported in the comparable period of 2014.
But whilst the Indian smartphone market continues to grow, India’s overall mobile phone market suffered a 6% decline in the second quarter of this year.
Mobile phone vendors shipped 59.4m units this quarter, compared to 63.2m phones sent during the second quarter of last year.
Researchers at IDC have attributed part of the growth in the smartphone market to vendors using online retail, or eTail, to access the market.
Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC’s India Mobile Phone team, said: “eTailers have opened additional avenues for growth for many vendors in India, who would have otherwise struggled to get a hold in the complex distribution network.
“The share of smartphone shipments through eTailers increased for most of the key vendors in Q2.”
Collectively, vendors Lenovo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Gionee accounted for 12% of the total smartphone market in the second quarter – doubling the figure from a year ago.
Kaur added: “As China started to slow down, most vendors from the country have targeted India as the next big growth market for smartphones.
“Key to the success of the Chinese vendors has been popular flash sales through online players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Amazon. At the same time, they have also focused on bringing more 4G phones at affordable $100 – $150 price points, which is a segment left unattended by Indian and global vendors.”
India’s top five smartphone vendors are: Samsung, Micromax, Intex, Lava and Lenovo.
Samsung retained its position as India’s leading smartphone vendor, recording a quarter-on-quarter decline and a year-on-year shipment growth.
India is expected to maintain its impressive growth rate in the smartphone market over the next few years.
For more information, visit the IDC’s official site.