The total 4G LTE device shipments in India reached 5.7 million units during the second quarter of this year, continuing the momentum of doubling shipments for the second consecutive quarter, according to market research firm, CyberMedia Research (CMR). The 4G devices shipped during the period continued to be predominantly smartphones with a share of 97%.
CMR reported that Samsung maintained its leadership in the 4G/LTE smartphone segment in the country, increasing its market share from 24.5% in the first quarter to 30% in the last quarter in terms of units shipped. Lenovo made significant gains behind Samsung with a 21.8% market share while Xiaomi rounded off the top three players with 17.1% share. India-based Micromax which is still looking to make its presence felt in this segment however saw its share declining from 10% in the first quarter to only 6% in the second quarter. In contrary, Japanese brand, Sony was able to garner a market share of 5% owing to good traction of its Xperia M4 and E4 models in the crowded market where other major brands like Intex, Karbonn and Asus have also launched new models.
In the 4G/LTE datacards segment that recorded a 107% growth in the last quarter, Chinese vendors took lead with ZTE securing a market share of 50%, followed by Huawei with a share of 44%.
Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice
As per earlier estimates, we expected that India would ship 5 million 4G Smartphones a quarter by the fourth quarter of CY 2015. But, with the current trend of doubling of shipments every quarter, we can now realistically expect that number to be in the vicinity of 10 million; in that event total 4G device shipments in the country should cross 11 million units per quarter by the end of this calendar year.
Vikrant Singh, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice
The best selling handsets in the 4G/LTE segment were the A6000 from Lenovo and Redmi2 from Xiaomi. This indicates that the India market is being propelled by shipments of devices in the INR 6-10k price range.
