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Steve Jobs can boast of Apple’s dominance in the US and Europe, but he also needs to acknowledge the iPhone’s failure to woo half of the world’s population residing in the emerging economies of India and China.
Apple, RIM, Motorola and Nokia may top the list of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers, but in India the stats vary. Nokia is a dominant name in India, followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola and LG. However, in a country of 452 million mobile phone subscribers, there is not a single Indian smartphone manufacturer in the top five list.
According to Gartner, worldwide mobile sales in the second quarter of 2009 declined by 6%, but smartphones continued to rise with an escalating growth of 27%.Gartner expects the Indian mobile market to exceed US 30 million by 2013. The Indian mobile subscriber base will also grow from the current 452 million to reach 771 million by 2013. The Indian mobile market is the second largest wireless market after China (by mobile connections).
Popular smartphone manufacturers in India include the world’s major players such as Nokia Corporation, Apple Inc., BenQ-Siemens, High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC), Fujitsu, LG Mobile, Kyocera, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Neonode, Panasonic, Philips, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, T&A Alcatel, and Toshiba. The leading smartphone manufactures together share more than 75% of the smartphone market in India; the rest is shared by smaller players and shanzhai manufactures, whose presence is significant in this region.
Nokia
Nokia came to India in 1995 and currently has its various R&D and manufacturing units in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and New Delhi. Nokia phones were the first foreign player to enter the Indian market and their efforts in the country stimulated the cellular culture. Nokia gained its foothold in India by offerings basic mobile phones in affordable price ranges. Just recently, Nokia launched its latest range of touchscreen and hi-end phones, which are getting quite popular with smartphones lovers of India. Nokia is focusing on gaming options, multimedia, GPRS, and faster Internet options for its latest range of smartphones.
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson entered India in 2001 with a range of sleek, smart and innovative phones. Since then they’ve introduced affordable smartphones in the market such as hi-tech multimedia features, camera phones, design phones, music phones, and web and email phones. Nokia and Sony Ericsson are the leading phone brands in India with 2 out of every 3 phones in India being either a Nokia or Sony.
Motorola
Motorola has a range of operations in India, which includes the development of mobile devices, enterprise mobility, and home and network mobility. Motorola’s Indian headquarters is in Gurgaon, with branches in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Motorola smartphones are mainly focusesed on data communication and mobile entertainment features with its new range that includes the Aura, A1600 and WX series.
Samsung
Samsung was a small player in India until recently. The Apple iPhone, which tanked in India due to its high price tag, never the less started a renewed interest in touchscreen phones. Samsung was first to take advatnage of the touchscreen hype in India by launching a series of touchscreen smartphones. Instead of setting high prices, Samsung reduced the price range to fit into the budget of more Indian consumers. 
LG
LG is a market leader in India for consumer electronics products such as televisions, and other home appliances. It gained mainstream acceptance in Indian phone market due to their collaboration with CDMA mobile phone operators to offer inexpensive phones. The recent interest in smartphones has encouraged LG to come up with GPRS enabled smartphones, 8 megapixel Viewty smartphones and smartphones with rich graphics and unique designs.
Indian player, Onida
As I mentioned earlier, the Indian smartphone market is influenced primarily by international players; however, the recent rise of smartphones has encouraged some of the leading Indian companies to enter the mobile market with their unique and multi-featured smartphones. Onida, a Mumbai based consumer electronics company, started by G.L.Mirchandani and Mr.Vijay Mansukhani in 1981, is the latest entrant in the smartphone market. Onida is marketing their phones as being feature-rich, with features that Nokia smartphones lack such as dual SIM, TV out, high megapixel cameras, etc.
Shanzai players in India
There is a growing market of Chinese phones in India. The market share of shanzhai phones in India is 13.3% of the mobile market. Chinese made smartphones are extremely popular in India due to the high price range of branded smartphones. Many Indians can’t afford a smartphone, but they still want to own one. The shanzhaid versions of smartphones are available at half the price or less while they offer the same features, or more.
Conclusion
Mobile phones have graduated from being just a communication device, to a mini computer in your pocket. There are hundreds of things you can do with a smartphone, from calling someone, to email, from chatting, to social networking. The Indian market is flooded with smartphone options, currently dominated by the big-name brands. There is more scope for the shanzhai, and local players like Onida, to come up with advanced features in the otherwise conventional smartphone market in India.
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