Emerging Indian mobile handset makers continue to gain market share as sector grows 15% to Rs. 33,171 Cr In FY11: Voice&Data study

Voice&Data ‘V&D 100’ mobile handsets study reveals

Indian mobile handset market grows 15% to Rs. 33,171 Cr in FY 2011

Nokia, Samsung, Micromax, Blackberry and LG among top 5

Revenues of the Indian mobile handset market grew by 15% to touch Rs 33,171 crore in 2010-11 from Rs 28,897 crore a year back, according to an annual survey by the telecom industry journal Voice&Data.

The16th annual survey 'V&D 100' covered all the mobile handset companies doing business in India across categories like feature phones, multimedia phones, enterprise phones and smartphones. Both multi-national and Indian mobile phone firms were surveyed for this report.

Nokia remained the #1 player in handset business in FY2010-11 with revenue of Rs 12,929 crore showing a growth of 0.2% over Rs 12,900 crore it did in FY2009-10. It lost market share in low-end segments to home grown handset makers like Micromax, Karbonn and Spice whereas it's high-end phones faced a tough competition from brands like Samsung, BlackBerry and HTC.

The analysts at Voice&Data attribute Nokia's loss of market share to its lack of dual-SIM phones in its portfolio. Dual-SIM phones have become an increasing phenomenon among value conscious Indian consumers. For FY2010-11, Nokia enjoys a market share of 39.0%.

The Finnish firm was followed by Samsung with revenues of Rs 5,720 crore and the company captured market share of 17.2%. The company grew by 21.7% in FY2010-11 from Rs 4,700 crore it did a year before. Samsung's success can be attributed to its rich product portfolio on various popular operating systems like Windows, Android and Bada. The company's entry level smartphone 'Wave' and 'Galaxy S' have been hugely successful during the period. For FY2010-11, the company's 3G phones contributed 5% of its entire sales, addsVoice&Data, specialty publisher CyberMedia’s flagship journal for the telecom industry.

Homegrown handset company Micromax captured #3 slot among V&D100 Top 10 mobile handset brands for FY2010-11. The company grew 43% during the fiscal to register revenue of Rs 2,289 crore from Rs 1,602 crore a year before, and grabbed a market share of 6.9%.

For the first time ever since Voice&Data started tracking Indian mobile handsets business, Canadian firm Research in Motion’s brand BlackBerry ranked among top 5 mobile phone brands in India. Positioning itself at #4, the Blackberry garnered revenue of Rs 1,950 in FY2010-11, up 61.2% from Rs 1,210 in FY2009-10. Its entry level smartphone saw more sales in the fourth quarter than all other three quarters put together. The company grabbed a market share of 5.9%.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC saw a growth of 99%, the highest, among all the brands surveyed by Voice&Data. HTC's revenue for FY2010-11 grew to Rs 450 crore from Rs 226 crore in FY2009-10 and holds 1.4% market share.

Most other Indian brands including Lava, Intex and Zen have shown almost a flat growth.

The mobile phone analysts at Voice&Data expect the partnership with Microsoft and Nokia to be a game changer for the two companies post their expected launch of WP7 phone in the next 6-12 months. The price conscious Indian consumers could benefit in the current fiscal

as domestic handset players like Maxx, Karbonn and Micromax roll out made in India handsets from their own manufacturing plants.

As the 3G services extend nationwide, the 3G phones would see a much bigger traction triggering entry of more 3G enabled phones at affordable prices, concludes Voice&Data study.

The mobile data card market grew at 52.3% to Rs 1077 crore with Huawei and ZTE garnering Rs 630 crore and Rs 374 crore from this segment. The fixed phone market shrunk by over a quarter to post revenues of Rs 228 crore, with the public sector telephone instruments maker ITI’s revenues slipping below Rs 10 crore mark to Rs 8 crore.