India becomes second largest smartphone market, surpasses US
India's smartphone user base grew to 220 million users by end of 2015.
New Delhi: India has surpassed the United States to become the second largest smartphone market in the world, said research firm Counterpoint on Tuesday.
This feat comes despite a decline in the growth of Indian handset sales in 2015, according to another report by Cyber Media Research (CMR).
“India’s smartphone user base grew to 220 million users by end of 2015 surpassing the US for the first time ever,” said Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. It said that almost half of mobile phones sold during the fourth quarter were “Made in India” with 20 plus mobile phone brands now assembling their phones in India.
Meanwhile CMR report said that the country sold 235.6 million units in 2015 as compared to 257.2 million units in 2014, a fall of 9 per cent. It said that smartphones, which constituted 39.8 per cent of the total sales, grew at 18 per cent while featurephones registered a sharp decline of 27 per cent in annual shipments. “We are witnessing a transition period for the industry. Transition from mass to niche, featurephones to smartphones, 2G and 3G to 4G,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Telecoms Analyst, CMR.