Samsung establishes leadership in the 4G/LTE device segment

Samsung, the overall leader in mobile handset shipments as well as Smartphone shipments in the country, established its leadership in the 4G/LTE device segment as well in the January-March 2015 quarter. The company recorded 27% market share in terms of units shipped, displacing Apple from the top slot. The other two players in the space were Xiaomi with 17% and Apple with 15% share of units shipped during 1Q CY 2015.

The 4G/LTE Datacard market is another significant contributor to 4G/LTE device shipments in the country. Although in terms of contribution Datacard shipments were only 2.64% of the total devices shipped, the segment has started showing exponential growth as predicted in CMR’s ‘Trends for 2015’.  In 1Q CY 2015, the QoQ growth was 287% for Datacards.  This segment was led by ZTE with 77% of shares followed by Alcatel 17% and Huawei 5%.

Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said, “The 4G/LTE device space is getting interesting as every quarter passes. The market more than doubled quarter-on-quarter and we see this momentum continuing for at least a few more quarters. Other than the need to appear distinctive in the market as well as move with worldwide industry trends, device vendors are also trying to create a ‘cult’ follower-ship in the emerging Broadband Wireless Access technology space.”

Other key findings of the report

• Growth in 4G/LTE devices propelled by 387% growth in Datacard shipments and 111% increase in Smartphone shipments
• 47% of 4G/LTE devices shipped were exclusively available online for sale.
• Qualcomm SoC used in 80% of the 4G/LTE mobile handsets shipped in the quarter.

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