India mobile handset revenues drop 5% to Rs 31,215 crore

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The Indian mobile handset market saw a drop of five per cent in revenues during 2011-12 to Rs 31,215 crore from Rs 33,031 crore a year ago, according to an annual survey.

The survey by the journal Voice & Data attributes this drop to de-growth in the feature phones sales as well as lower average selling values (ASVs).

It surveyed over 30 mobile handset firms -- both multi-national and Indian -- selling feature phones, multimedia phones, enterprise phones and smartphones in India.

Nokia remained the number one player in the handset business in 2011-12 with revenue of Rs 11,925 crore, despite an eight per cent drop over Rs 12,929 crore revenues posted in the previous financial year.

The Finnish company lost market share in smartphones and multi-media segment to Samsung, HTC and Apple, among others.

Nokia that caters to all mobile segments saw its absence in the Android ecosystem dent its performance, it said.

Nokia however, made a headway in the dual SIM phones category but lost out in the smartphone market. Nokia ended 2011-12 with a market share of 38.2 per cent.

South Korean giant Samsung saw its revenues grow by 38 per cent to Rs 7,891 crore and be in the number two spot with a market share of 25.3 per cent, thanks to its rich product portfolio based on Windows, Android and Bada operating systems.

Samsung's Galaxy Note, a hybrid between smartphone and tablet was a trailblazer, selling 40,000 units each month since the launch in late 2011, the survey said.

Homegrown handset company Micromax with revenues of Rs 1,978 crore was ranked number three. It, however, recorded a 13 per cent negative growth and had a market share of 6.3 per cent.

Another Indian player to post revenues of over Rs 1,000 crore was Karbonn, which registered a 32 per cent growth in revenues to emerge as number five player with a market share of 4.3 per cent.

Among global companies, Canadian BlackBerry maker Research In Motion dropped 25 per cent, to post revenues of Rs 1,460 crore.

At number four, Blackberry had a market share of 4.7 per cent on the back of entry level smart phones last year.

Taiwanese handset maker HTC saw maximum growth -- 105 per cent -- among all the brands surveyed. Its revenue more than doubled to Rs 923 crore, from Rs 450 crore, to garner a three per cent market share.

The other key players in the top 10 list include Spice Telecom (Rs 790 crore), LG (Rs 780 crore), Huawei (Rs 760 crore) and G-Five (Rs 670 crore).