Microsoft, NextBit Robin, Acer, other small-time smartphone brands decline in 2017

Shipment of smartphones to India may be increasing but the number of brands are declining as several small-time brands have either shut shop or suspended production. According to Counterpoint Research data, the number of smartphone brands in the country in January 2017 stood at 75, down from 110 in calendar year 2016. In January 2016, the number of brands stood at 85.

Most of the brands which have gone off-shelves were in the sub-R5,000 category. “Almost 80% of exits involve regional players which are unable to generate volumes and thus scale up their portfolio,” said Tarun Pathak, senior analyst, mobile devices and ecosystems, Counterpoint Research.

Brands which have eclipsed are Microsoft, NextBit Robin, Phicomm, Qiku, and Acer to name a few.

Taiwanese player Acer, which is not selling any more in the Indian market, sold only 30,000 units in the country in CY16. Compare this with Chinese player Xiaomi, which sold 3 million units in the country July-September in 2016.

Even Microsoft’s Lumia is not on sale in the country for quite sometime now and there is no new product announcement by the company also. India, is the second largest mobile handset market after China and the fastest growing one with approximately 300 million smartphone users in the country.

Counterpoint’s Pathak said that while new brands will keep entering the market, this year exits will exceed entrants as the market is slowly moving up the price band with average selling price of smartphones increasing year-on-year.

According to latest numbers from IDC, the Indian mobile market saw 109.1 million units of smartphones being shipped CY2016, up 5.2%. The slower growth was due to a 20.3% decline in shipments in the October-December quarter due to demonetisation. In CY2105, smartphone shipments to India had increased by 28.8%.

Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd.