Micromax Mobile has achieved the impossible by becoming first Desi mobile maker to overtake Korean giant Samsung in smartphone sells in India during the 4th quarter of 2014. According to Canalys in a surprising development the budget oriented Desi mobile vendor Micromax has taken over the former number one mobile seller Samsung by capturing 22% of Indian smartphone market share. On the other hand the Korean major slips down to second position with about 20% share in Indian market.
The number may not sound much in a percentage but given the reputation and fancy lineup of one of the world’s largest Smartphone maker Micromax’s achievement is amusing in many ways. The report also claims that Micromax Mobile that specializes in making budget friendly smartphone specially benefited by its sub Rs 12,000 smartphone lineup like Canvas Hue and Canvas Nitro.
Canalys Analyst Rushabh Doshi said, ‘Canalys believes catering to local market preferences will become increasingly important. Micromax has been quicker than its competitors to improve the appeal of devices, for example, by including a wide variety of local languages on its Unite phones.
Rapidly growing local smartphone makers like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn currently play a big role in the mid range mobile market that now make of 41% of overall Indian smartphone market.
Once a dominating name, Samsung now also faces big threat from the likes of Chinese makers like Xiaomi and Motorola (now a Lenovo company) which understands budget market a lot better than Samsung. Recently Motorola India announced that it sold 10 million smartphone in the span of 10 months in India. The numbers are loud and clear sign that Samsung need to rework its strategy for budget savvy market like India.
Not to mention that the report comes as another major blow to the world’s smartphone major Samsung that is already experiencing slow growth in high end market due to Apple’s big screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
