Nokia dominates the Indian market

Nokia clearly had the early mover advantage in India. After launching its handsets over a decade ago, the Finnish major strengthened its grip on the Indian market like no other player ever did. Or, as some say, like no other player ever would.

A large number of consumers have got so used to Nokia’s interface, designs, price points and easy availability of a wide range of models that a few months ago, its market share almost touched 80%. And now, it is riding high its omnipresence, with the largest distribution reach among all other handset companies.

But then, some consumers are beginning to look for alternatives. Waits at Nokia care centres have become longer, even if the faults are not that big. Others say that incidents of software snags have gone up. Still others are keen to possess handsets that are trendier, stylish, and multi-functional.

The result: Over the past three months, Nokia’s market share has dipped. Its overall share (including CDMA handsets) has fallen to below 60% from about 65% and to about 72% in the case of GSM handsets, which not long ago at about 80%. Worldwide, Nokia commands a market share of just 36%.

Motorola and Sony Ericsson have started to slowly eat into Nokia’s share in India, with Samsung itching to join the pack of hunters.

Source: Financial Express

Check out the full article for some more stats. What I think is occurring is the iPod phonomonem here in the USA. When a product reaches such a mass saturation point it becomes a me2 device. Example:

"I have an iPod"
"Me too!"

People like to express themselves so they get other phones just to be different. Could this be a sign of a trend in India? Frankly I don’t have first hand experience of the region, I would kill to visit tho. Forget China, India’s economy is growing so fast it’s making economists cry in hysteria due to the large number of opportunities that are presenting themselves.

We must not forget, Nokia has a manufacturing plant down there so they don’t have to pay to get their products from point A to B. That is a HUGE advantage.