Yesterday, Canalys, a research firm had issued findings that Indian phone maker Micromax had overtaken Samsung to become the leading supplier of smartphones in the Indian market in the fourth quarter.
Samsung has come out in defence of its brand and quashed the report, saying that it is the clear leader in the Indian smartphones market as per a report which is based on the company’s actual sales. Samsung claims that its volume market share in the October-December 2014 quarter was 34.3 per cent and the value market share was 35.8 per cent. Samsung based its results on data by GfK India.
The GfK data is based on actual retail sales in 50,000-plus population cities, compared with Canalys which tracks shipment data.
Samsung’s Mobile marketing VP for business in India Asim Warsi issued a statement saying, “In the entire year 2014, we continued to lead the market with innovative and exciting offerings. Our volume market share in the smartphone market in the year was 35.7 per cent, which is more than double than that of the next player, while our value share was 40.2 percent, which is more than four times the next player.”
This however is suprising as IDC’s Q3 2014 data had given the South Korean company a 24 per cent market share and its 34.3 per cent claim of volume market share is much higher. A 34.3 per cent market share, as Samsung claims, means a 10 percentage point increase for Samsung in Q4 of 2014.
After having lost the top spot in China to Xiaomi, Samsung does not want to give up lead in another booming market and thus is leaving no stone unturned to claim its lead in the country with fierce competition from the homegrown mobile phone manufacturers.