Maxing Out: Samsung Loses The Crown To Micromax in India
Maxing Out: Samsung Loses The Crown To Micromax in India
Indian budget smartphone company Micromax has beaten Samsung Electronics Co Ltd as the top brand for all types of mobile phones during the months from April to June according to research group Counterpoint. They have snared a 16. 6% market share according to recent reports by researchers. Samsung has about 14.4% market share down nearly 2 points to 16.3% in the first quarter according to the report by Counterpoint Research.
But when it comes to smartphones, Samsung has shown that it still has what it takes. "Micromax is leveraging its wider distribution reach, growing brand awareness not only in urban but in rural India with affordable low-cost handsets," Counterpoint analyst Neil Shah has been quoted by news agencies as saying.
Low cost phones are making it easy for Micromax to beat Samsung when it comes to market share. In price sensitive India, consumers are extremely cost conscious and in such a setting, cheap products which do not compromise on quality are likely to prove to be a hit with mobile phone users. Micromax is a local mobile phone maker ad it is gaining market share with low cost phones.
Such local companies use chip-sets created by MediaTek that are more reasonably priced than those offered by market leader Qualcomm Inc. A major factor in bring costs down is that these local companies outsource production to China and Taiwan which helps in cutting down on costs.
Local Indian mobile phone manufacturers have gained a healthy 32% of the domestic market and greater than 75% of the total shipments according to the report. Across the smartphone segment, the largest market share has been garnered by Samsung with a total of 25.3% of the shipments during the second quarter even as Micromax had around 19.1% .
Samsung's dominance has slipped as the company had 33.3% market share in smartphones during the first quarter. India is currently the third largest market for smartphones following China and the US. Around 90 million smartphones are being targeted as a sales benchmark this year, according to analysts. The report has also indicated that the smartphone segment expanded at 68% on a yearly basis during the second quarter in 2014.
Indian brands have gained more than 2/3rd of the total mobile phone shipment and captured more than half of the smartphone shipments. Micromax has also achieved another success. It is the leading feature phone supplier and it has overtaken Nokia for the first time as per the report.
With Chinese players such as Xiaomi and Gionee not far behind, Micromax has to be a step ahead to retain its gains. The Chinese Apple has many sweet deals for cost conscious consumers who believe in value for money so Micromax has to aim for ambitious targets if it wants to be the next Indian Apple.
