Things haven't been going Samsung's way so far this year. Xiaomi has dethroned it in China as top smartphone seller and now it's been dealt another blow: it is no longer the top dog in India.
According to a study by Counterpoint Research, local company Micromax has unseated Samsung as the top-selling brand in India by capturing a 17 percent share of the market. Micromax may have not dominated the smartphone segment but it is close behind, tailing Samsung and its 25.3 percent slice with a 19 percent share of the market.
"Micromax is leveraging its wider distribution reach, growing brand awareness not only in urban but in rural India with affordable low-cost handsets," explains Neil Shah, an analyst from Counterpoint Research, of the Indian company's performance.
Indian brands generally represent over two-thirds of total shipments for mobile phones, with more than half of that number translating to smartphone shipments. The mobile phone market in India has grown a modest 2% overall yearly, but this doesn't seem to be the case in the smartphone segment. Based on the study, India's smartphone segment grew an impressive 68%, although feature phones fell behind, dropping 16% in the second quarter of 2014.
Aside from besting Samsung overall, Micromax is also the leading supplier for feature phones, overtaking Nokia for the first time ever. Motorola also has a presence in the Indian market but is relegated to fourth spot with a 4.3 percent share of the smartphone market. Motorola has claimed, however, that it has sold a million Moto devices in the country.
Micromax launched the Canvas Windows and Unite 2 smartphones this season so the introduction of new models may have helped pull up the company's performance for the second quarter. Official figures haven't been released though so it is unclear as to which of the two models helped Micromax more. Micromax has also teamed up with Google to build smartphones at sub-$100 price points for emerging markets.
Besides from India, Micromax also has a presence in Russia and SAARC markets. In fact, it is the 10th largest mobile phone player in the globe, even though it only entered the mobile phone manufacturing business in 2010. In 2013, the company started producing mobile phones in Uttrakhand in India. Before that, Micromax sourced its mobile phones from China. The company was founded by Rahul Sharma, Vikas Jain and Sumeet Arora and is based in Gurgaon, Haryana.
