4G to account for 45 per cent sales of smartphones by March: Micromax
Micromax has around eight LTE-enabled devices in its portfolio
New Delhi: Country's second-largest handset vendor Micromax today said about 40-45 per cent of its smartphone sales volume will come from 4G devices by end of the fiscal.
The company, which has seven to eight LTE-enabled devices in its portfolio, is scaling up the number to over 10 devices by the end of December.
"We are seeing a strong traction with our 4G devices. By March next year, 4G devices will be 40-45 per cent of volumes for us," Micromax CEO Vineet Taneja told PTI.
Micromax is also looking at bringing in more 4G handsets devices across price points, especially in the affordable category."15 per cent of the smartphones being sold in the country are 4G-enabled. This number is set to double over the next few months," he said.
Buoyed by strong uptake of data services and pan-India rollout of 4G network by telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, handset makers are looking at expanding their product portfolio with LTE devices, especially in the entry and affordable price range smartphones.
With the impending launch of 4G (high speed Internet services) by Reliance Jio, more handset makers are expected to launch devices.
According to CMR's India quarterly data, 4G-LTE device shipments more than doubled in the March 2015 quarter, growing108 per cent quarter-on-quarter to 2.2 million units.
India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally and is expected to replace the US as the second largest market by 2017, as people switch to smartphones from feature phones and gradually upgrade to 4G-enabled phones.
In the April-June 2015 quarter, smartphone shipment in India grew 44 per cent to 26.5 million units from the year-ago period, as per research firm IDC. Samsung had a market share of 23 percent share, followed by Micromax at 17 per cent.
Micromax on Wednesday launched its new flagship device 'Canvas 5' priced at Rs 11,999.The device features 5.2-inch display, 3GB RAM, 1.3 GhzOcta-Core processor, 13 MP rear and 5MP front cameras and 2,900 mAh battery.
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