Affordability, User Experience To Rule Smartphone Market In 2015
The year 2014 also saw newer brands, especially of Chinese origin like Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus and Vivo, entering Indian market.
The most awaited launch was that of Xiaomi, often referred to as the 'Apple of China'. The company adopted a flash sales model, putting few thousand devices on sale on Flipkart, which Indian consumers lapped up within seconds.
"We plan to bring in more devices -- smartphones, Mibands and MiTV to India in 2015. We have an exciting year ahead of us," Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain said.
Globally, Xiaomi has managed to rank among the top five smartphone vendors, which includes behemoths like Samsung and Apple, within the short span of its existence.
"With smaller players offering customers the latest technology at better prices, we will see a potential erosion of the dominance of the bigger players in the market," Spice Mobility Chief Executive Officer Prashant Bindal said.
"Indian customers are value conscious buyers and make intensive comparisons before making a choice on the handset brand, with key evaluation features being technical specifications, brand image, service support and price," he added.
The brand pull of bigger players is no longer the key decision making factor for these young customers, he said.
While Samsung continued to be the market leader with 24 percent share in July-September quarter, it has seen its share decline as other players like Micromax and Motorola gained traction.
Micromax had 20 percent share, Lava and Karbonn (8 percent each) and Motorola (5 five percent) in the said quarter.
Globally, Microsoft completed its $7.2 billion buyout of Nokia's handset division, while Lenovo finished the takeover of Motorola devices unit from Google.
To cater to the increasing number of tech enthusiasts, who are looking at doing more with their devices, a new brand from Micromax called Yu was introduced. China's OnePlus also made its India debut to cater to this growing segment.
Another important development in the Indian market was the launch of Google's Android One handsets. Search engine giant Google partnered Indian handset makers Micromax, Spice and Karbonn to launch handsets priced Rs 6,399 onwards.
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