Despite the onslaught from Chinese manufacturers in the nascent 4G smartphone space, Korean giant Samsung is dominate the LTE segment in India with 27 per cent market share. Apple used to hold this slot till now.
Xiaomi is the second largest vendor in the space with 17 per cent as Apple slipped to 15 per cent share in 1Q CY 2015, according to CMR’s India Quarterly LTE (4G) Device Market Review, May 2015.
Overall LTE device shipments reached 2.2 million units during the period, with smartphones accounting for 97 per cent of the 4G/LTE devices shipped.
Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said the market more than doubled quarter-on-quarter and we will 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,” he said.
Analyst Vikrant Singh said Samsung jumped from third spot to top spot thanks to 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,” he added.
“The total models of 4G/LTE handsets shipped during the January-March 2015 quarter were 55, with Lenovo’s A6000 leading with maximum units,” Vikrant concluded.
The 4G/LTE Datacard market is the other contributor to 4G/LTE device shipments in the country with 2.64% of the total devices shipped.
This segment was led by ZTE with 77 per cent followed by Alcatel 17 per cent and Huawei 5 per cent.