Fewer Indians moved to smartphones in April-June: IDC

Fewer Indians shifted from feature phones to smartphones in the April-June quarter. While 27.5 million smartphone units were shipped in the period, 33.7 million feature phones were shipped in the same three months period, technology research and consulting firm International Data Corporation (IDC), said in a press release on Friday. 

"The rate of migration from feature to smartphone has slowed down, and feature phones continue to account for more than half of the total Indian mobile phone market," IDC India and South Asia Senior Research Manager, Mobile Devices Research Navkendar Singh, said in the release.  

"Cautious spending behaviour of consumers clubbed with feature phone’s continued relevance to the target customer’s usage needs, vendors re-calibrating the channel to increase their share and relatively better margins with feature phones, are some of the factors which are driving the volumes for feature phones,” Singh added.

Feature phone shipments grew 2.6% in the quarter over a higher base number, while smartphones grew marginally by 3.7% compared to last year, IDC data showed.

According to IDC, one of the factors that contributed to the growth of the feature phones is that the difference between an entry-level feature phone and smartphone is approximately Rs 1,000. Vendors are finding difficulty to match the prices of feature phone and hence re-opening the market clocking good volumes of feature phones to capture entry-level/ first-time buyers.

The technology research firm further noted that decreasing footprint of large CDMA service providers was a key reason behind growth in feature phones as many users have boarded a new GSM feature phone as their primary device of communication.

Sequentially, shipments of smartphones in India grew healthy at a 17.1% in April-June quarter after witnessing a slowdown for two successive quarters, IDC said.

Samsung continued to lead in the Indian smartphone market with 25.1% market share, a growth of 15% compared to last year, and a 10.9% sequential growth.

"With updated versions of J2, J5 and J7 released in Q2 2016, J-series devices continue to drive Samsung’s shipments," IDC said.

The launch of new smartphones and new marketing initiatives helped Micromax to retain its second position in the smartphone market after witnessing a decline for two consecutive quarters. It recorded a growth of 19.9% over the previous quarter.  

Micromax and Lenovo Group followed Samsung by grabbing 12.9% and 7.7%  market share, respectively, during the period.  

Lenovo Group regained its third rank by registering a 10.3% growth over the last quarter on the back of an increase in sales of the Moto G4 Plus and the Vibe K5 Plus smartphones.

Intex slipped to the fourth position with 7.1% market share while Reliance Jio has maintained its position as the fifth largest smartphone vendor with 6.8% market share. It registered a 12.3% sequential growth in April-June, over the previous quarter. 

The launch of LYF devices under Rs 3,357 segment coupled with the introductory offers with Jio services helped Reliance Jio to gain strong traction in retail stores, IDC said.

Later in the year, IDC expects smartphone and feature phone sales to pick up pace thanks to the long festive season.