India shipped 85 million handsets in FY 08

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/BANGALORE, INDIA: The total mobile phone shipment in India amounted to 85 million in FY 08, registering a 29 per cent growth over FY 07, according to the IDC study – Asia/Pacific Mobile Phone Tracker, Q1 2008.

FY 07 had witnessed just fewer than 66 million units of shipment.

The country shipped over 22 million handsets in Q1 2008 that is around 10,000 shipments every hour during the period.

The same quarter a year ago witnessed shipment of just less than 18 million mobile phones.

Nokia retained the top spot with a market share of 52.8 per cent.

LG (10.2 per cent) and Samsung (8.3 per cent) were in the second and third spot respectively, in terms of units shipped during the quarter.

The financial year 2007-08 also saw shares of higher-level air interfaces rising. EDGE and WCDMA-enabled mobile phones contributed 15.4 per cent and 3.1 per cent of the total mobile phone shipments in 2007-08 as compared to 7.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively in 2006-07.

“This growth comes on the back of a burgeoning mobile services market and lower entry barriers across various customer categories, as average selling values of handsets continue to fall in the wake of a highly competitive landscape populated by close to 25 vendors,” stated Kapil Dev Singh, country manager, IDC India.