Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) holds the largest share in the Indian market of 4G LTE devices, and from October-December it held 45% share as told by CyberMedia Research (CMR). The fourth-quarter was dominated by Apple, thanks largely to its first-mover advantage.
“Within smartphones, the major type of LTE devices shipped into the India market, Apple leads with a 45% market share during Q4 CY2014, followed by HTC at 19% and Samsung at 16%,” CMR said.
India moving towards 4G
In the fourth-quarter of 2014, more than one million LTE devices were imported by India suggesting the ‘coming of age’ of the 4G devices. The devices imported included not only smartphones and tablets, but also data cards, says the research firm.
Previously, the 4G phones in the Indian market were only sold by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and few other global brands. However, now we have several other brands in the market with LTE phones such as Xiaomi, Oneplus and Lenovo that started shipping LTE phones by the end of CY2014. The entry of more firms in the segment led to a more competitive pricing for the devices, said CMR telecoms practice lead analyst Faisal Kawoosa.
Very few cities in India have LTE services available, but still these devices are selling at a fast pace in the country. Also, it is generally seen that when a user seek replacing their smartphones they to go for a 4G enabled handset, says a report from the Times of India.
Apple ruled the tablet market too
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) dominated the tablet market with a 70.6% market share, followed by Lenovo that held 28.7% share and Hewlett-Packard with an insignificant share. The LTE data-card market is dominated by Alcatel with an 83% share while Huawei enjoys a 17% share.
Micromax had a small and insignificant share of 0.1%, and was the only Indian brand that shipped LTE devices as informed by Vikrant Singh, telecom practice analyst at CMR. Singh noted that rising popularity of the 4G enabled devices in India, is a positive sign for the home-grown brands like Lava, Karbonn and Intex.
On Wednesday, Apple shares closed down 0.63% at $128.54 while year to date the stock is up over 16%.
