Hot Market
As the competition to take over the newly-emerging hot Indian market is becoming fiercer, the industry is paying attention to who will be the leader of the Indian smartphone market this year.
According to industry sources on April 27, Ratan Tata, honorary Chairman of Tata Sons, which is the holding company of the Tata Group of India, purchased shares of the largest Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi.
TechCrunch has also said that Xiaomi is taking the advice of the Indian market from the the Tata Group of India, and attracted investment. As the cooperative relationship between Xiaomi and the Tata Group is strengthening, it will be a great help for Xiaomi to tap into the Indian market.
Xiaomi, which took over the Chinese market last year, selected India as a strategic country this year and unveiled its strategic smartphone Mi4, in New Delhi, India, on April 23. Keeping pace with the Indian market, where low-end smartphones are popular, Xiaomi launched the model at the price of 12,999 rupees (220,000 won, or US$205.34).
Samsung Electronics, the existing leader in the market, is now in an emergency situation. Before Xiaomi, local smartphone manufacturers were the biggest obstacle. Local market research firm Canalys announced that Micromax of India ranked 1st with a 22 percent market share last year, overtaking Samsung with a 20 percent market share. With the local firms being hot on the trail, Samsung Electronics is trying hard to maintain its market share. The company put the first Z1 Tizen smartphone, which has its own operating system, at the price of 5,700 rupees (98,000 won, or US$90) on the Indian market this year. Also, it is continuously releasing low-end smartphones targeting the Indian market. Moreover, Samsung Electronics hosted the “World Tour” event to unveil the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge in India last month for the first time.
Apple also joins hands with local distributors to expand its distribution network. According to industry sources, Apple is planning to increase the number of its retail stores by 500 this year in cooperation with the local large distributors Redington and Ingram Micro. This is the measure to triple the sales of the iPhone, which sells 1 million units a year in India.
An official from the industry said, “In the saturated smartphone market, India is one of the typical regions with growth potential. In the Indian cellphone market, pitcher phones account for 65 percent, while smartphones account for 35 percent. Therefore, the growth potential of smartphones is very high. Realizing such a growth potential, a lot of the global cellphone manufactures entered the market and there is a fierce competition between the firms.”