India One Of Fastest Growing Smartphone Markets in Asia Pacific: Report

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Nearly 103.6 million smartphones were shipped in India in 2015 -- an increase of 28.8 percent as compared to 2014 -- positioning India as one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the Asia Pacific region, said a report on Tuesday.

According to International Data Corporation's (IDC) "Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker", 25.6 million smartphones were shipped in India in the fourth quarter of the calendar year 2015 -- an increase of 15.4 percent as compared to 2014 when 22.2 million units were shipped in the country during the same period.

Also, similar to last year, smartphone shipments saw a sequential decline in the last quarter of the year with shipments dipping 11.9 percent over the previous quarter owing to weaker shipments from the key Indian players.

"The online share of smartphone shipments continued to ramp further as fourth quarter of 2015 saw online mega sales from major e-tailers like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon," Karthik J, senior market analyst, client devices, said in a statement.

"Online share spiked to 37.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, growing 2.5 times over the same period last year with almost half of the contribution coming from online exclusive models," Karthik added.

The report said the smartphone market in China has begun to slow down and most vendors including Chinese players are now looking for avenues to leverage on India's growth potential in the smartphone market.

"Chinese vendors' smartphone shipment spiked with 71 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 over last year," added Jaipal Singh, market analyst, client devices.

Singh further added that, "good quality, big discounts by e-tailers and higher specification at lower prices are few key factors for which Chinese smartphones are preferred over others especially in $100-$300 price band."

Commenting on the success of the "Make in India" campaign, Singh said that almost one in two smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter of 2015 were manufactured in India with Samsung leading with the highest shipments.

Similarly, 4G smartphones shipment spiked to 13.9 million units accounting for more than half of the market in the fourth quarter of 2015.

"4G-based smartphone shipments surpassed 3G volume for the first time during the last quarter of the year, primarily led by Samsung and Lenovo together accounting for more than half of 4G volumes," Karthik noted.