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Apple Loses To BlackBerry In India
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 04 October 2011, 22:53 IST
Bangalore: The world's largest technology giant Apple is facing problems selling iPhones in Indian market with 602 million active subscribers. The company which is all set to announce a new iPhone version, ships fewer devices to the world's second largest mobile-phone market than it does to Norway reports The Times Of India.
The Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and Nokia sell more handsets in Indian market, where smartphone shipments are forecast to grow almost 70 percent a year until 2015, aiding to ease their market- share losses in U.S. and Europe.
Gus Papageorgiou , an analyst at Scotia Capital in Toronto said Sales for Apple by market value was blocked as Indian wireless carriers, which started third-generation networks this year, have yet to offer nationwide services fast enough to take advantage of iPhone features.
According to estimates by Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC, "RIM got the right product, the right timing, the right app," he said. Apple shipped 62,043 iPhones to India in the quarter ending June 30, or fewer to Norway, Belgium or Israel.
Apple detailed for 2.6 percent of India's smartphone shipments in the quarter ended June 30, draging RIM's 15 percent, Samsung Electronics' 21 percent and Nokia's 46 percent, IDC estimates.
Kshma Shah, a 25-year-old interior designer in Mumbai told TOI that "The iPhone only works when you have Wi-Fi ."
According to IDC Apple the world's largest maker of tablet computers also shipped about 21,150 iPads to India in the same period, or 0.2 percent of its global total.
Papageorgiou further stated that RIM's BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging service is popular because it was one of the first, and it functions well on networks generation behind the speeds offered in the U.S. and Europe.
Krishnadeep Baruah, director of marketing for Waterloo, Canada based RIM in India said
RIM, which entered India in 2004, plans to extend its lead over Apple after expanding distribution to 80 cities from 15 starting last year. "We want to ride this wave," Baruah said. "This is really the time to expand into the emerging towns and cities," he added.
