India is now world's second largest smartphone market! This is just the tip of the iceberg

India pipped the US and became world's second largest smartphone market as the country crossed 220 million in active unique smartphone users in 2015.

This means smartphone shipments in India have grown considerably.

"This speaks volumes for the scale India market provides for any player in the mobile connected ecosystem. India still has a long way to go as the smartphone penetration of the total potential population is still below 30%," said Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.

Counterpoint Research stated that smartphone shipments in India grew 15% annually in the October-December quarter.

The two companies that benefitted from the demand were Apple and Samsung.

Apple crossed 2 million units for the first time in a calendar year led by a strong fourth quarter.

Samsung dominated the mobile phone and smartphone market during the quarter with market shares of 23.6% and 28.6%, respectively.
"We are witnessing a transition period for the industry from mass to niche, featurephones to smartphones, 2G and 3G to 4G, 'offline only' to hybrid, and 'imports only' to domestic manufacturing with imports," said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Telecoms Analyst, CMR.