Indian mobile handsets market grows by 3.6 percent in Q3.

New Delhi, Dec 29 – The sales of mobile phones in India grew 3.6 percent to touch 40 million units during the quarter ended Sep 30, said a study by advisory firm IDC’s India quarterly mobile handsets tracker, 3Q 2010.

According to the study, Finnish handset maker Nokia had the largest share of 31.5 percent in terms of units shipped during the quarter. While the emerging vendors captured 41.2 percent combined share of the market.

Chinese brand G’Five followed Nokia in terms of units shipped share and Korean handset manufacturer Samsung occupied the third position.

The study also showed a strong quarter on quarter growth in smartphone sales of 34.2 percent, and a year on year rise of 294.9 percent. This clearly underscores that India mobile handset buyers have started showing higher preference for smartphones.

Thanks to increased competition, the prices of the smartphones also dropped through the year. Over 80 percent of total smartphone sales were below the average sales value of Rs.18,000 in the second quarter of the year while this proportion increased to 90 percent in the third quarter.

‘The India mobile handsets market got even more crowded and fragmented in the lower- and mid-market segments with the further entry of new players offering innovative models at attractive price points to lure buyers,’ said Anirban Banerjee, associate vice president, research, IDC India.

‘The propensity to adopt feature phones and smartphones is greatest amongst the youth and business executive segments, whose purchase decisions are often driven by peer group influence and workplace usage patterns, as well as larger disposable incomes and willingness to experiment with new technology platforms,’ he added.

The study also showed that the android operating system (OS) based phones gained acceptance and 9.4 percent of the smartphones shipped were based on android as against 2.9 percent in the same period last year. During the same period even the number of models increased to 19 as compared to two models previously.

‘In the smartphone segment, an increasing number of vendors are displaying confidence in the android operating system, having grown from just one vendor in third quarter 2009 to as many as seven in third quarter 2010,’ said Naveen Mishra, lead analyst, mobile handsets research, IDC Indian.