Not too long ago it was reported that Samsung lost out the lead in the very lucrative Chinese smartphone market to Xiaomi, a company that has only been around for four years and is now the biggest smartphone vendor in the People's Republic. There's more bad news for our favorite Korean company as it comes under pressure in yet another lucrative emerging market. A new report from Counterpoint Research shows that Indian manufacturer Micromax dethroned Samsung in Q2 to take the lead in the country's smartphone market.
Micromax's growth and subsequent leap over Samsung is attributed to its relatively affordable entry-level devices which undercut many of Samsung's devices on price. Given the dynamics of this particular market that move appears to have worked greatly in its favor, with Samsung losing out on the lead in yet another market.
According to the report in Q2 Micromax accounted for 16.6 percent of all smartphone shipments in India as opposed to Samsung's 14.4 percent. Microsoft-owned Nokia clinched the third spot with 10.9 percent. Micromax is particularly strong when it comes to feature phone shipments, clinching 15.2 percent against Samsung's 8.5 percent.
No doubt Samsung would want to bounce back in the next quarter and regain the lead in these important markets. It remains to be seen how much the Galaxy Alpha and Galaxy Note 4 help in this cause.
