Mobile Sales in India – Nokia Market Share Falls, Local Manufacturer Strikes it hot

IDC India has published a report on growth of mobile sales in India (for 2009) and here are some of the relevant data points to track:

• The growth has more or less flat [owing to low sales figure in Q1] – in total, 101.54 million units of sales were registered.
• Local manufacturers* have grabbed 17.5% market share [from 0.9%, a year back]
• Only 5 local manufacturers in 2008 and the number stands at 28 now!
• Nokia market share in India fell from 56.2% share in 2008 to 54.1% in 2009.
• Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd’s share rose marginally to 9.7% from 9.5%.
• LG’s share dropped from 7.2% to 6.4%,
• Of the local manufacturers, Micromax leads the race and holds a market share stands of 4.8%.

Like any market research, take this with a pinch of salt [for instance, Nokia has expressed reservations about the research, since IDC didn’t take into account its production facility in Chennai, which ships 50% of the manufactured mobile to India].

Nevertheless, this is an interesting result and rise of local companies shows that there is a value in local IP [eat this: Micromax Q5 phone is just like Blackberry/E71/72 with a far lesser price which Blackberrys of the world cannot even match].

What’s your take on the rise of Indian local mobile manufacturers?

*Top 5 Local manufacturers – Micromax, Karbonn Mobiles, Spice Mobiles Ltd, Videocon Industries Ltd and Lava International Ltd.