Samsung and Xiaomi beat Apple in Q1 4G device sales

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Samsung, the overall leader in mobile handset shipments as well as Smartphone shipments in the country, established its leadership in the 4G/LTE device segment as well in the 1Q (January-March) CY 2015, according to CMR’s India Quarterly LTE (4G) Device Market Review. The company recorded 27 per cent market share in terms of units shipped, displacing Apple from the top slot.

The other two players in the top three slots were Xiaomi with 17 per cent and Apple with 15 per cent share of units shipped during 1Q CY 2015.

Vikrant Singh, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said, “Samsung made a jump from third spot to top spot mainly on account of the launch of new handset models like A5, A6 and S6. New brands entering this segment during the quarter were Huawei, Blackberry and ZTE. The total number of players shipping 4G/LTE devices in the quarter were 19, up from 12 in the previous quarter.”

“The total models of 4G/LTE handsets shipped during the January-March 2015 quarter were 55, with Lenovo’s A6000 leading with maximum units,” said he.

LTE device shipments in the country reached 2.2 million units during 1Q. Although, 97 per cent of those 4G/LTE devices were smartphones, but the growth was propelled by 387 per cent growth in Datacard shipments as well. Smartphone shipments saw an increase of 111 per cent.

Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said, “The 4G/LTE device space is getting interesting as every quarter passes. The market more than doubled quarter-on-quarter and we see this momentum continuing for at least a few more quarters. Other than the need to appear distinctive in the market as well as move with worldwide industry trends, device vendors are also trying to create a ‘cult’ follower-ship in the emerging Broadband Wireless Access technology space.”

“With the kind of expected paradigm shift in quality as well as types of services after RJio goes ‘live’, device vendors are busy showcasing their competencies in the 4G/LTE space, not only to have an early mover advantage but also to position themselves as reliable vendors in the space,” said he.

The 4G/LTE Datacard market is another significant contributor to 4G/LTE device shipments in the country. Although in terms of contribution Datacard shipments were only 2.64 per cent of the total devices shipped, the segment has started showing exponential growth as predicted in CMR’s ‘Trends for 2015’. In 1Q CY 2015, the QoQ growth was 287 per cent for Datacards.

This segment was led by ZTE with 77 per cent of shares followed by Alcatel 17 per cent and Huawei 5 per cent.

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