I remember mentioning in several of my posts in the past year how it was great for Indian consumers that so many new companies were entering the smartphone market and releasing devices that provided high-end specification at lower prices. The latest annual report released by 91mobiles.com stresses exactly the same thing. Not only did 2014 saw many new players entering the smartphone market of India, but it also saw these new players releasing high-end devices at lower rates. And this ended up in bringing down the average selling price of the smartphone by 18%.
As per this report, over 1,000 phones were launched in India by about 100 brands in 2014. A major share of these devices belonged to Indian brands. In fact, as per 91mobiles’ report, 64 Indian brands and 31 international brands launched phones in India in 2014. That is, the number of Indian brands was twice as much as the international brands. And Indian brands like Karbonn, Intex and Micromax proved to be the leader with launching maximum number of mobiles in India in 2014.
In 2014, many new players like Xiomi, Motorola, Asus, Lenovo made their presence felt and earned popularity with Indian consumers with their mobile offerings. Many of these brands opted for exclusive online sale model.
Another interesting thing to note is that while the popularity of smartphone grew, the launch and sale of feature phones grew too.
In 2014, while newer companies gained popularity, old players like Samsung managed to retain their lead. Especially in premium device segment, Samsung and Apple continued to enjoy supremacy. Although, it can also be noted that even these top brands did feel the pressure and suffered some decline in popularity with the entrance of newer names in the market. But the new brands targeted the budget segment more, so the old leaders could maintain their supremacy in the premium segment. Samsung’s devices manage to be among the most popular devices in all price ranges. But the report also clearly shows the rising popularity of brands like Micromax. In fact, the brands like Micromax, LAVA, Karbonn, Gionee are right there in competition with the likes of Samsung, Nokia, HTC and Sony.
Samsung’s journey in 2014 saw rise and fall. Sony and Nokia suffered a downfall as the year progressed. But Micromax rose! HTC also saw a happy rise as the year progressed.
The best thing to note in this report is that that the specifications of devices in budget segment (5,000 to 15,000) have become much better than previously. And many budget-range devices now come equipped with high-end specifications like full HD display, Octa Core processor, RAM above 1 GB, 13 MP camera etc.
If this trend continues to grow, as we can well expect it to do, the Indian consumers are sure in for a good time!
For more details, take a look at this slide presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/91mobiles/mobile-phone-landscape-india-2014
Or take a look at these infographics: