Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Indian feature phone market with dual-SIM phones

After quarters of misery, Nokia has been able to reassert its position in the Indian feature phone market with dual-SIM phones, and Microsoft promises an edge for it in the smartphone segment. However, it must play its cards well to be able to leverage on the same.

Off late, Nokia has firmly started to make a late (but not too late yet) comeback. In the feature phone market, Nokia has posted stellar gains with its dual-SIM handsets and in the smartphone segment, it’s now looking at its tie up with Microsoft. Understanding the nerve of a price sensitive and yet durability conscious Indian market, Nokia has unveiled a series of quality dual-SIM handsets in last two years for users who were compelled to compromise on low quality Chinese handsets. It went on to launch country-wide advertisements from road shows (Nokia’s blue brigade rally) and customer engaging street plays depicting the benefits of dual-SIM phones launched by Nokia, which worked wonders and resulted in the company managing to stretch its lead again in the overall mobile devices segment. Gopi Rajeev, Lead Analyst for Mobile Phones, Smartphones and Tablets, IDC India confirms, “In just 6 months (Q2 -Q3, 2011) Nokia was able to increase its market share by 6.8%, and what gave them the real boost were their dual-SIM phones in the Indian market.” Though the company still expects to sell nearly 150 million Symbian-based handsets in 2012, it has already taken steps in a right direction (with Microsoft) and the rest of the players including Samsung and HTC have now started following suit. Windows-based platforms are relatively more secure in comparison to Android, since the latter is a more open software. Google bought Motorola in 2011 for an enhanced grip over portable hardware devices riding Android, which might be doing exceptionally well (set to cross 42.4% share in 2012), but will face stiff competition by 2015 from Windows-based phones. “They (Microsoft) are more consumer oriented, in sync with the market and have much more to leverage considering their market share in PCs,” adds Rajeev.

As it gets into an overdrive on these comeback strategies, Nokia should keep in mind its positioning as a mass market brand. It has plans to infuse nearly $50 million by 2014 to revamp its Indian operations for both high end and low end segments. IDC projects mobile phone shipments to India to grow at a CAGR of 13.03% from 2011 to 2015 and reach 30 million by that year. In contrast, smartphones are expected to clock a CAGR of 63.4% in the same period and reach 77.5 million by 2015. Dual-SIM is a great second start, but swift and deep penetration in smartphones will help Nokia build the momentum for sustainable market share. Nokia’s best bet, therefore, could be the affordable smartphone market, which is eagerly sought after and will see extremely bitter competition. But it’s a bet Nokia needs to take, considering that it still retains quite an unbeatable branding edge here.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
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