Nokia retained its leadership position in the Indian mobile handset market with 31 percent share of the market in terms of sales (unit shipments) during 2011, followed by Samsung (with 15 percent share) and Indian manufacturer Micromax (with 5 percent).

The company was the clear leader in all the mobile handset segments which included smartphones, multi-SIM phones and 3G phones. It had 38 percent market share in the smartphones segment, (followed by Samsung and RIM) and nearly 13 percent market share in the multi-SIM category.

In 2011 the India smartphones market witnessed the launch of 150 models by over 30 vendors.

Smartphone shipments touched 11.2 million units in calendar year 2011 recording a YoY growth of 87%. Nokia emerged as the leader in the smartphones segment with a 38% share followed by Samsung with 28% share in CY 2011. RIM dropped to third place with a 15% share.

The share of Android OS in the smartphones category saw tremendous growth of over 600% in CY 2011 (34% share) as compared to CY 2010 (9% share). This growth was mainly on account of an increasing number of handset vendors adopting Android as preferred OS for their smartphones.

“In 2012, the proportion of smartphones with extended features like NFC and 3D gaming are likely to increase. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Nokia take their partnership to the next level with a new range of smart devices based on the Windows 7.5 Mango OS platform. For instance, the Nokia Lumia 610 has been announced at the Mobile World Congress 2012 at Barcelona, even as we go to press. It is expected that this phone would be aggressively priced to compete with smartphones from the Android and RIM stable”, stated Naveen Mishra, Lead Telecoms Analyst, CyberMedia Research.

Multi-SIM handset shipments accounted for 57% of the total India mobile handsets market during CY 2011, representing an year-on-year increase of 61%. Nokia was the market leader in the category with a nearly 13% share during the year.

“After a long wait, Nokia introduced its dual-SIM phone portfolio to the India market in September 2010. The innovative products in the Finnish vendor’s portfolio helped Nokia become the market leader in the category. Some of the key features in Nokia’s dual-SIM portfolio were ‘touch-and-type’ and ‘easy swipe’; the latter allows customers to change their secondary SIM without powering off the phone”, stated Tarun Pathak, Analyst, Telecoms Practice, CyberMedia Research.

“During CY 2011 the dual-SIM category also extended its presence to the 3G and smartphone (Android) segments”, Tarun further added.

During CY 2011, close to 250 unique 3G handset models were shipped from approximately 30 different vendors. The total shipments of 3G phones in the country touched nearly 18 million units, a year-on-year growth of 153%. Nokia again emerged as the market leader in this category followed by Samsung and RIM.

“In anticipation of increased 3G data usage among subscribers all the major handset vendors introduced their 3G phone portfolios to the India market during CY 2011”, stated Naveen Mishra, Lead Telecoms Analyst, CyberMedia Research.

“3G is a relatively new phenomenon in India with active subscribers estimated at only 15 million as of December 2011. This may be directly attributed to the lack of 3G network availability in many locations and the poor quality of service experienced by existing subscribers. Therefore, in many respects 2012 will be a ‘test year’ for the growth and adoption of 3G handsets and data services in the country. It will be interesting to see how new alliances and offerings emerge from handset vendors, service providers and content developers to target mobile subscribers with innovative device plus data service bundles”, Naveen further added.