JioPhone launch looms the prospects of feature phone as well as entry-level smartphones: CMR

According to a data from research firm CMR, Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Lenovo, Vivo, Oppo, and iTel have shown growth in the range of 7-33 percent in smartphones (iTel being the exception with growth of 293 percent on a small unit base), the focus is now all about competition among these brands to occupy the leading positions in the market.

The data says that a total of 61.8 million mobiles were shipped in the 2Q 2017, of which 54 percent were feature phones witnessing 9 percent sequential growth.

As the JioPhone launch looms the prospects of feature phone as well as entry-level smartphones, brands aligned to these markets pushed the shipments in wake of anticipated contraction of the market due to JioPhone availability in 3Q 2017, and beyond.

Thomas George, SVP & Head CMR while sharing some insights of the report said, "As Smartphones complete its first decade in India, Samsung will continue to enjoy the market leadership, 6th time in a row. He, however, cautioned that though it will continue to leverage the offline physical reach and access, there has to be a clusterized strategy for each of the geo-markets in the country Samsung will have to adopt."

The data pointed out that, Chinese brand Xiaomi is one of the ace performers in the quarter not only taking to No. 2 in the smartphone market in India but also contributing to the revival of Rs. 4000 - Rs. 6000 price segment of the market. The segment witnessed 55 percent growth sequentially.

CMR also believes that going forward, the entry level smartphone market will see a lot more action for a few quarters from now onwards.

Faisal Kawoosa, Principal Analyst, Telecom and ESDM, CMR said, "The entry level market of Smartphone will see some growth primarily due to attempts by various handset makers to counter the emergence of 4G Featurephones. This should also see the support of incumbent operators who are seeing revenues eroding at the hands of Jio's entry into the market."