4G Smartphone shipments surpass 3G volumes in Q4 in India, says IDC report

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4G Smartphone shipments surpass 3G volumes in Q4 in India, says IDC report
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For the firs time ever, 4G smartphone shipments surpassed the volumes of 3G during the fourth quarter of 2015. This has happened despite the fact that smartphone shipments have declined 11.9% in the quarter, as compared to the previous quarter, because of weaker shipments from key Indian players, said an IDC report.

This surge in 4G volumes was primarily led by Samsung and Lenovo, the two companies that together accounted for more than half of these volumes. Talking in numbers, 4G handset shipments rose up to 13.9 million units, which accounts for more than half of the market in the fourth quarter of 2015. The IDC report also added that shipments from much awaited Reliance Jio also started coming in the fourth quarter, which contributed to a fast growing LTE share in India.

It was in the calendar year 2015 that vendors shipped 25.6 million smartphones, which was up by 15.4% from the previous 22.2 million units. This has positioned India as one of the fastest growing smartphone market in Asia Pacific, said the report.
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During the fourth quarter of 2015, Korea-headquartered Samsung re-established its leadership in the market with marginal sequential growth. It had a higher share gain in the quarter accounting for 26.8% share of shipments.

IDC said that it was the J-series of Samsung, which the show for the vendor, as it contributed to over 2/3rd of its total shipments. However, the shipments of Indian handset maker Micromax fell down by 12.1% year-over-year and 23.5% over previous quarter. However, it still managed to maintain the second position, having 14.1% share in quarter.
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The problem that Micromax has is acute competition from both Indian and China-based vendors, who sell mobiles at different price points under US$200.

The third position was acquired by Lenovo with a market share of 11.6 percent. Lenovo shipments have almost tripled year-over-year in the quarter.

Intex came at the fourth position but its shipments grew 40.9% in the last quarter of 2015, as compared to the same period last year.

"The online share of smartphone shipments continued to ramp further as 2015 Q4 saw online mega sales from major e-tailers like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon," Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, told ET.

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