Mobile handset sales in India remain flat with 101.54 Million units

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 02 April 2010, 23:23 IST
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Bangalore: In the 2009 India's mobile handset market remained flat with sales of 101.54 million units. The top three slots were occupied by Nokia, Samsung and LG. According to market intelligence firm IDC, India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker report, Finnish handset maker Nokia had the largest share of 54.1 percent in terms of units sold during the year. The two Korean companies Samsung with a 9.7 percent share and LG with a 6.4 percent share for the year were at second and third positions respectively. New vendors registered a combined market share of 12.3 percent in terms of total India mobile handset sales. The number of new vendors in the India mobile handsets market grew to 28 and they together garnered 17.5 percent of the total sales for the first time during the October-December 2009 quarter. The market showed signs of revival in 4Q 2009 to record a year-on-year (4Q 2009 over 4Q 2008) growth of 2.3 percent to touch 28.36 million units in the quarter, said IDC India report. "The mobile handsets market got even more crowded and fragmented at the lower- and mid-market segments with the rise of 'copycat' models that have looks and aesthetics resembling those of high-end smartphones. These 'copycat' look-alikes are often available for as little as one-tenth of the Average Sales Value (ASV) of a smartphone, Naveen Mishra, Lead Analyst, Mobile Handsets Research, IDC India, said. The adoption of look-alikes of smartphone models is expected to be higher amongst the student and young executive segment, said the report.