Telecom Lead Asia: IDC
said China will become largest market for Smartphones in 2012, while India will
grab third spot by 2016.
By 2016, India’s country-level Smartphone market share
will increase to 9.3 percent from 2.2 percent in 2011. Presently, India stands
at 9th rank, which will improve by 2016 at 3nd rank.
IDC says that the Indian smartphone market will witness
galloping growth throughout the forecast period, as carriers are expected to
aggressively roll out 3G networks and data plans.
Domestic vendors such as Micromax, Spice, Karbonn and Lava
have already launched low-cost smartphones in a bid to drive future demand as
they attempt to move up the value chain from low-cost feature phones.
In 2011, growth has been driven by top-tier brands like
Samsung and HTC, and international vendors will look to invest further in local
manufacturing in the coming years as the high-growth Indian market becomes a
top priority.
Nokia
leads the current Indian smartphone market share with 38 percent market share,
followed by Samsung with 28 percent market share, according to CyberMedia
Research.
The competition between Nokia and Samsung is increasing.
Both are finding new strategies to strengthen its foothold in Indian mobile
market.
For China, IDC predicts that it will become the leading
country-level market for smartphone shipments in 2012, moving ahead of the
current leader, the United States, due to increasing smartphone shipments to
emerging markets.
IDC anticipates that China’s market share will increase to
20.2 percent in 2016 from 18.2 percent in 2011.
“Emerging domestic vendors will be another important
engine of smartphone growth as giants Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo continue to ramp
up with big carrier orders due to their willingness to produce customized
handsets,” said Wong Teck Zhung, senior market analyst with IDC’s
Asia/Pacific Client Devices team.
IDC further predicts that Brazil’s ranking will also improve
from 1.8 percent market share to 4.7 percent share. By 2016, Brazil will be
ranked at 4th position, in comparison to 11th place in 2011.
editor@telecomlead.com
