Multi SIM Mobile Phones 38.5% of Total Handset Sales in India

According to IDC’s India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker for 2Q 2010, Dual- and Triple-SIM card slot phones have grown to 38.5% of the total India Mobile Handset sales, from less than 1 per cent in 2Q 2009 (April-June 2009 quarter). Mobile handset sales in India grew by 6.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter (2Q 2010 over 1Q 2010), touching 38.63 million units in a single quarter.

• April-June 2010 mobile sales touch 38.63 million units, up 6.3% QoQ
• Multi SIM mobile phones account for 38.5% of total sales.
• During the period of January-June 2010, the top five mobile handset vendors in India were Nokia, Samsung, G’Five, Micromax and Spice.

India mobile market saw a unique trend of multi SIM phones capturing 38.5 per cent of the market. This could be attributed to several new service providers responding with highly competitive tariff plans to a price sensitive mobile telephony user market.

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According to Mr. Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President-Research, IDC India, “In the recent quarters several new players successfully launched their own devices at significantly lower Average Selling Values (ASVs) in the price sensitive India market. Such handsets found ready acceptance amongst first time buyers, especially from small towns and villages.”

This influx of new brands led to a spurt in overall market and saw ‘emerging vendors’ corner as much as 33.2% of total India mobile handset shipments in 2Q 2010. Nokia retained its No.1 spot with a market share of 36.3% in terms of units shipped. Samsung retained the No. 2 position, while Chinese brand G’Five emerged as the No. 3 player.

Figures published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the month of July 2010 showed that wireless subscribers reached 652.42 million in the country, while overall teledensity (including 35.96 million wire line subscribers) touched 58.17 per 100 population.