India's Smartphone Sales Surge To 44 Mn In 2013

NEW DELHI: Smartphone sales in the country grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013, buoyed by a strong uptake of affordable devices made by local firms such as Micromax and Karbonn, research firm IDC said.

Smartphone shipments stood at 16.2 million in 2012.

"India was one of the fastest-growing countries worldwide in terms of smartphone adoption in 2013. This surge has been mainly powered by homegrown vendors, which have shown a tremendous and consistent growth over the past four quarters of 2013," IDC said in a statement.

Korean player Samsung maintained its leadership with a 38 percent share of the Indian smartphone market, followed by Micromax (16 percent), Karbonn (10 percent), Sony (5 percent) and Lava (4.7 percent) in Q4 2013.

There was a remarkable migration from feature phones to Smartphones last year, primarily because of the narrowing price gaps between the two product categories, it added.

Overall phone shipments in the country rose 18 percent to about 257 million units in 2013 from 218 million units in the previous year.

"Growth in the Smartphone segment is expected to outpace the overall handset market growth for the foreseeable future.
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