And yet again, Samsung has disputed Micromax’s claim to the throne when it comes to smartphone vendors in India. The South Korean giant reacted to the Canalys report we’ve talked about below which says the homegrown brand is now the king of the mobile devices business on these shores.
Samsung says that according to market research firm Gfk, its own volume market share and value market share were 34.3% and 35.8% in Q4 2014, respectively. The company also notes its value market share to be more than four times than what the next player can boast about, indicating Micromax.
Micromax has been trying its level best to take the top smartphone maker in India title away from Samsung for a long time now. Well, it has finally succeeded at that, if new information from Canalys is to be believed. According to the report, the Indian OEM is the first local vendor to achieve the top spot in the market.
And its victory over Samsung which is said to be the third largest in the world, is mainly due to Micromax’s appeal to people now upgrading to smartphones. Canalys notes in a presser that the Indian vendor has managed to secure a market share of 22% of total sales in the country. The South Korean giant isn’t far behind though, as it currently has 20% share in its grasp.
The third and fourth positions have been filled up by Karbonn and Lava, respectively. The report goes on to say that Micromax’s flagship line which normally ranges between Rs 9000 to Rs 12000 has been quite effective. Out of the total smartphone shipments in Q4 2014, 23% were under Rs 6000 and 41% ranged between Rs 6000 and Rs 12000 . Additionally, India has witnessed an annual growth of 90% with 21.6 million units being shipped in the last quarter.
Also read: Xiaomi to sell smartphones through its own Mi.com website in India
Micromax’s victory hasn’t only come about owing to its plethora of affordable offerings in the market. Samsung has been having a tough time selling its smartphones around the globe and clearly, it’s losing its grip in India as well. The company recently launched the Z1 handset with its own Tizen UI and we’ve been seeing it deliver many low-cost, yet mediocre devices over the months.
Micromax’s new YU Yureka smartphone has been selling pretty well and it’ll certainly contribute to keeping the company in the top spot for the near future, that’s unless Samsung pulls out something incredible through the Galaxy S6 and other upcoming devices.