Android captures 9 pc of smartphone market in India

Android growth is in full swing in India. According to the IDC’s India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker, 3Q 2010, Android share in Indian smartphone market rose to 9 percent, up from 2.9 per cent in 3Q 2009. That is a significant growth in last one year.

The number of available Android smartphones also increased to 19 in 3Q’10, while there was only two in the same quarter last year.  I think the availability of cheap and mid range Android smartphones played a major role in this rise and it will continue to do so. Several local telecom firms are also working on their Android smartphones, including Micromax which recently launched one, Videocon, Karbonn, Olive Telecom, Spice and Lava.

India has also been fortunate to get all the major manufacturers releasing Android smartphones in India within months of their release in western markets. Motorola, Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson, all have over four Android smartphones available currently in the market. CDMA market is still waiting to get decent Android smartphones, apart from Samsung I899, there is no CDMA Android smartphone available in India. But, we are hoping to see more, as both Reliance and MTS are prepping to launch some of them next year.

According to Naveen Mishra, Lead Analyst, Mobile Handsets Research, IDC India, “In the smartphone segment an increasing number of vendors are displaying confidence in the Android OS, having grown from just one vendor in 3Q 2009 to as many as seven in 3Q 2010.”

“This trend is expected to show healthy growth as the Android applications ecosystem widens in terms of its reach into the developer community and number of users, both of which will further prompt device vendors to introduce new models”, Naveen added.