156 Million Smartphones in India by 2017 [Report]

According to IDC, India will be the world’s third largest smartphone market by 2017 only after China and US. IDC’s study predicts the Indian smartphone market to attract 2.78 crore shipments in 2013, accounting for 3% of worldwide market share.

More Smartphones Than Feature Phones

2013 will be the year when smartphone shipments are set to overtake feature phone shipments on a global market-wide level for the first time. IDC predicts that vendors will ship nearly 92 crore smartphones worldwide accounting for a little over 50% of total mobile phone shipments globally.

As far as global markets are concerned, China will continue to be the largest smartphone market in 2013.  China is expected to attract 32.8% of the worldwide smartphone market share. By the end of 2012, China had 112 crore mobile subscriptions or 17.67% of the total mobile subscriptions in the world.

The U.S. will continue to hold the second spot but a drop is expected because of saturation in markets. The U.K. market is expected to grow but at a slow pace.

Predictions for 2017

According to IDC, China will continue to remain the world’s largest smartphone market over the next five years. More than 45 crore smartphone shipments are expected in 2017 however growth levels may decline as the market matures.

India has been termed as an ‘emerging market’ and IDC predicts that the Indian smartphone market will log growth levels of 459.7% over the next five years. The Indian market is expected to attract 15.56 crore smartphone shipments in 2017, accounting for 10.3% of the worldwide smartphone market.

India’s Market Potential

IDC predicts that the Indian smartphone market will witness growth levels that are higher than any other top markets in the world. The availability of low cost devices, better network penetration and high-speed networks will all be contributing factors.

India has huge potential to be a leading market for smartphones and this has been constantly shown by global researches and reports. India’s young population with a higher disposable income and a rising appetite for technology is surely making India a very lucrative market.