Indian Data cards market witnessed a 72% decline in 3Q CY2017: CMR

According to a new report by CMR, the Indian Data cards market witnessed a 72 percent decline in 3Q CY2017, shrinking to 1.1 Million in unit/shipments.

The market share of Reliance Retail dropped down to 57 percent during the quarter, as against 91 percent in 2Q CY2017 in terms of units shipped because of the accumulation of higher stocks by the end of 2Q CY2017.

Despite this fall, Reliance Retail maintained its number one position in the overall data cards market. Huawei shipments recorded 63 percent sequential growth in 3Q CY2017 in terms of units shipped.The vendor's market share increased to 18 percent in 3Q CY2017 as against 3 percent in previous Quarter in terms of units shipped.

July 2017 witnessed comparatively lesser shipments of data cards due to GST impact along with stock clearance from previous quarters. August and September 2017 saw an upward trend in the sales because of the offers floated during the festive season," stated Shipra Sinha, Lead Analyst, Industry Intelligence and Channels Research Practices, CyberMedia Research.

The report also said that LTE/4G based Mi-Fi devices contributed 82 percent market share.

However, it declined by 77 percent when compared to 2Q CY2017.

Also, the Reliance Retail's model JMR 1140 was the fastest moving model followed by its JDR 740 on second position and Huawei's E5573CS-609 on the third spot.

Data card with a data rate of 150 Mbps contributed around 88 percent of overall shipments in the same period. Around 64 percent of Data Cards were found to operate on Qualcomm Chipset in 3Q CY2017, and 92 percent of data cards were found to sold through operator bundling in 3Q CY 2017.

"LTE/4G based MiFi devices capability to provide super fast and uninterrupted internet, its cost-effectiveness, inbuilt battery, and multiple user support will contribute to its leadership position. The rising acceptance of Mi-Fi's, primarily driven by Reliance Retail in Tier II and Tier III cities will make way for this device to expand to major parts of India. The fourth quarter is expected to be slow mainly because of the end of all the major festivals and their offers. However, if Reliance Retail continues to push its MiFi models at attractive discounted rates, we will see an uptick in the sales," Shipra concluded.