Mobile device sales in India are forecast to reach 138.6 million in 2010, an increase of 18.5% over 2009 sales of 117 million units, according to information technology research and advisory firm Gartner.
Gartner said that Indian cellular market consists new carriers and many new local mobile device manufacturers, which increased price competition and led to low call rates and low-cost devices from multiple manufacturers in the market.
India accounts for 10% of worldwide mobile phone sales, and its sheer size and open market has attracted global mobile device manufacturers and also supported local manufacturers, which resulted in more than 50 brands available for Indian consumers, the market observer said.
The research firm said that growing influence of local handset players in the low-end segment, big global players have had their positions weakened. The midrange to high-end market is also getting increasingly competitive, with a greater focus from global players on the Indian market and the launch of competitively priced midrange and high-end mobile devices.
Further, the Indian cellular market is highly voice-centric with just 10% of carriers’ revenue coming from data services, in which 85% of revenue comes from Short Message Service, leaving less than 2% of overall carriers’ revenue coming from data access on mobile devices.
Gartner expects 3G device sales to account for 16.7% of total sales in 2010, up from 9.2% in 2009. It estimates 3G devices sales to account for 69% of total sales by 2014. While Smartphone sales in India made up 5.2% of total device sales in the first quarter of 2010, the firm expects this share to increase to 18% in 2014.
Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: "Cellular phone penetration in India stood at 45% in 2009, and the market is entering into a second phase of growth, with replacement sales increasing from 45% in 2009 to 50% of total sales in 2010.
"Moves to high-speed 3G networks is bringing in more challenges in terms of innovation and keeping up with fast changing consumer demand. Shortening product life cycle times and declining sales of voice-centric devices will bring changes to the market during the next five years."
