Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) outperformed Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) in the Indian market for smartphones, says a survey from Voice&Data. Fueled by strong demand for smartphones, the mobile market in India is expected to enhance by 14.7 percent in 2012-13 striking Rs. 35,946 crore from Rs. 31,330 crore in FY’12.
Samsung’s wide range of devices helped
According to the survey, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) clinched the first position, overtaking Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) this year. More than 30 mobile handset companies were considered in the 18th annual survey ‘V&D 100’. The categories taken into consideration were feature phones, multimedia phones, enterprise phones and smartphones.
As per the survey, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) gained top position in India due to its wide range of mobile phones in all segments from low price to high price.
“Samsung handset prices range from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 50,000 and come in varied screen sizes. These two factors helped the company grab customer’s attention, besides the product quality and new features,” the survey said.
Samsung earned revenue of Rs. 11,328 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs. 7,891 crore in FY’12, which is a growth of 43.6 percent. The Korean electronics maker rules the roost with 31.5 percent market share.
Nokia failed to identify the trend
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V), however, slipped to no. 2 spot with 27.2 percent of market share. Nokia posted revenue of Rs. 9,780 crore from Indian operations in 12 months ended March 2013 compared to Rs. 11,925 crore in FY’12.
Decline in the share for Nokia started due to the laxity of the company to identify the need of a dual–sim phone for Indian consumers, which was adopted by the domestic companies prior to the international companies in the country.
Lumia series from Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) managed to create initial hype in the international market but failed to allure consumers in India.
Apple gaining rapidly
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) posted an increase in revenue by 417.2 percent to Rs 1,293 crore in the financial year 2013 compared to Rs 250 crore in the previous fiscal. The Cupertino-based firm started penetrating into Indian markets over the past two years, after neglecting the region long before that.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) brought some rapid changes to its sales strategy in the previous fiscal year that earned revenues for the company. Some of the strategic initiatives taken by the iPhone maker were appointing Ingram Micro and Redington as national distributors and alluring users by giving EMI schemes on its most popular gadgets like iPhone4.
