A new report by CyberMedia Research states that the overall Indian mobile handset market recorded sales of 15.4 million units during November 2011, taking the total handset shipments during the first eleven months of the year to nearly 166 million units.
The report, “India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review,” revealed that Nokia retained its leadership position in November with 28% market share, followed by Samsung with 12% market share and Micromax with 4% market share.
Multi-SIM handset shipments accounted for 54% of the country’s total mobile handset sales during November 2011.
“Nokia, a late entrant to the Multi-SIM device category, made up by having as many as seven models on offer by November 2011 and is the market leader in the category with 19% market share, followed by Micromax with 7.1% and Karbonn with 6.9% market share,” the report stated.
According to the report, smartphone shipments touched 10 million units in the first eleven months of calendar year 2011. November was only the third consecutive month when smartphone shipments in India crossed 1 million units. Moreover, the month witnessed the launch of as many as 23 smartphone models.
“A new trend that is becoming visible is the launch of dual-SIM smartphones by vendors,” said Tarun Pathak, analyst for the Monthly Mobile Phones Market Review Program at CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice.
The shipments of 3G phones touched 15.5 million in the first eleven months of 2011 with close to 224 models launched by 26 vendors. In November, 3G phone shipments contributed 8.9% of the total mobile device shipments in the country.
“With an increasing share of 3G phones in the market, the stage is set for customers to experience the benefits of 3G services. However, currently, the user experience on 3G networks has been constrained due to network quality issues faced by subscribers,” explained Naveen Mishra, lead analyst at CyberMedia Research Telecoms Practice.
“As the device side of the data services ecosystem, signified by the growth in shipments of smartphones and 3G-enabled handsets, reaches a critical mass, telcos in India would do well to shore up their networks and put in place suitable alliances with publishing companies and content developers,” Mishra added.
The report does not have any concrete data on Nokia’s Lumia range of devices (Nokia Lumia 800 and 710), based on the new Microsoft Windows 7.5 (Mango) OS, as they were launched at the end of the month.
