Indian handsets market reports 5 percent drop in revenues

The Indian mobile handsets market reported a 5 percent drop in revenue at Rs.31,215 crore during the financial year ended March 31 due to a fall in feature phone sales and lower average selling price of handsets, a study said Monday.The market had registered revenue worth Rs.33,031 crore during the previous financial year.

While firms such as Nokia, Research in Motion (RIM) and Micromax posted fall in revenue, others such as Samsung, HTC and domestic firm Karbonn posted a rise in the revenue, said an annual survey by by CyberMedia group's telecom journal Voice & Data.However, despite 8 percent drop over Rs.12,929 crore revenue posted during previous financial year, Nokia remained the number one player in the handset business in during the year with revenue of Rs.11,925 crore.

The Finnish company lost market share in smartphones and multi-media segment to Samsung, HTC and Apple, among others with its absence in the Android ecosystem denting its performance.However, it made a headway in the dual SIM phones category. Nokia had a market share of 38.2 percent. The Korean giant Samsung, revenue grew 38 percent to Rs.7,891 crore and the firm stood on the second spot with a market share of 25.3 percent.Samsung's Galaxy Note, a hybrid between smartphone and tablet was a trail blazer selling 40,000 units each month since launch in late 2011.

The fluctuating sales of the mobile world

"As consumers look for applications beyond voice and SMS the market will see fight for high end feature phones and smart phones intensify further. Consumers can also look forward to steeper price drops and more features in the same price," Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor, Voice&Data said.Homegrown handset company Micromax with revenues of Rs.1,978 crore ranked third recording a 13 negative growth. Micromax had a market share of 6.3 percent.Canadian BlackBerry maker Research In Motion dropped the most -- 25 percent to post revenue of Rs.1,460 crore.

It had a market share of 4.7 percent on the back of entry level smart phones.Taiwanese handset maker HTC saw maximum growth of 105 percent among all the brands surveyed by Voice&Data. HTC's revenue more than doubled to Rs.923 crore, from Rs.450 crore, to inch a 3 percent market share.

IANS