Just 16.3 million smartphones sold in India during 2012 despite strong growth

Indian consumers purchased just 16.3 million smartphones during 2012, despite a strong 48% year-on-year growth rate over 2011.

The IDC figures show that smartphones still account for a small, yet growing, segment of India’s 218 million unit mobile phone market.

“Local vendors ramped up shipments and aggressively launched new models to meet the growing consumer demand in the low-end smartphone market segment,” says IDC India senior market analyst Manasi Yadav.

“Local vendors have remained dominant in sub-$US100 price band while they pose serious competition to the global vendors in the $US100-200 price band. These two segments emerged as the most vibrant and the fastest growing smartphone price band segments in the Indian market.”