Android, now tops smartphone OS in India: IDC

BENGALURU, INDIA: Well, its a good news for all the Android users in India and slightly disappointment for Symbian OS users.

In a recent study by International Data Corporation's Q3 report on India Mobile Phone Tracker, Android OS has overtaken Symbian to emerge as the top mobile platform in India for the first time.

Also read: Android OS accounted for 52.5 pc smartphone sales

"Android overtook Symbian to emerge as the top platform in India for the first time, with a share of 42.4 per cent of the smartphone market," said Rajeev, lead analyst, Mobile Phones at IDC.

The Android platform saw a growth of 90 per cent over the previous quarter. The Apple iOS consolidated further, with a 3.09 per cent share of the smartphone market, compared to a share of 2.6 per cent in Q2 2011, added Rajeev.

Also read: Asian handset makers embrace Android OS

The report further added that the Indian Mobile phone market grew 12 per cent in units shipped, over the previous quarter, to clock 47.07 million units. Year-on-year too, there was a shipment growth of 13.8 per cent.

Deepak Kumar, research director at IDC, India said, "Notwithstanding a sharp decline in the mobile service subscription adds during July-Sept 2011, the mobile phone shipments witnessed a spurt, as vendors built channel inventories ahead of a long festival season.”

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“Dual-SIM handset shipments were notable with a sequential growth of 25.2 per cent over the previous quarter," he added.

Interestingly, the quarter gave both the Top 2 players something to cheer about.

According to the report, Nokia grew its share of overall mobile phone shipments during July-Sept by 6.8 per cent over the previous quarter, Samsung succeeded in increasing its smartphone shipment share by 5 per cent over the same period.

"The slowdown of Nokia's smartphones shipment is in line with the expectations, that it would be prepping to transition some of its market share from Symbian to Windows," Deepak added.

Highlighting on the overall smartphone shipment for the Indian market, Rajeev said, "India market showed an impressive growth of 21.4 per cent over the previous quarter and 51.5 per cent year-on-year.

This helped the segment grow its contribution to the mobile phone shipment to 6.5 per cent in Q3 from 5.6 per cent in Q2," added Rajeev.