Nearly 164 million feature phones that Reliance Jio made after its launch, were sold out thus taking the market share to 27 per cent in December 2017 only
According to a new report by Counterpoint Research, Reliance Jio Phone has topped the feature phone category in India with 47 per cent market share, after its launch a little over a year before on July 21, 2017.
Jio reached the feat by the end of Q2
Since getting launched, Reliance Jio experienced remarkable growth in the feature phone category. As per the report, the company’s market share for December 2017 (falling under the third quarter of the last fiscal year) stood at 27 per cent. The 47 per cent market share was attained by Jio phones by the end of the second quarter of 2018-19.
Besides topping the feature phone category, the company saw growth in its sales as well. Last year, approximately 164 million Reliance Jio feature phones sold out. A report by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) stated that feature phone sales saw a surge of 17 per cent in 2017.
This implies that telecom customers in remote areas and smaller cities of India still opt for functional benefits such as durability, better battery-life and low cost while buying a phone.
Samsung and Nokia follow Reliance Jio phones
According to the statistics report, Samsung came second with 9 per cent market share at the end of second quarter of the current fiscal year, seeing a drop from 27 per cent at the end of the same quarter in the previous fiscal year.
The Finnish giant, Nokia, on the other hand, grabbed the third spot with 8 per cent market share. The company saw over two-fold increase in its share that stood at 3 per cent by the end of the second quarter in the last 2017-18 fiscal year. Itel that saw 16 per cent market share by the end of Q2 in 2017-18, faced massive drop to 6 per cent market share in the current financial year. The telco company stands at number four in the feature phone category in India.
At present, more than 90 brands including Indian makers like Inter Micromax, Karbonn and Lava, sell feature phones. A collaborative survey by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Kantar IMRB found that most feature phone users belong to either upper social-economic classification (SECs) or middle-class section.
