India overtakes Japan to become worlds third largest smartphone market

A new report by research firm Strategy Analytics has noted that India has overtaken Japan to become the worlds third largest smartphone market. “India overtook Japan to become the world’s third largest smartphone market for the first time ever during Q1 2013. Companies like Samsung, Micromax and Apple are driving higher volumes through improved distribution networks. The smartphone boom is well underway. India is now a country no major smartphone vendor, component maker or apps developer can ignore”, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_907849” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] The top two countries on this list are the US and China respectively. According to TechCrunch, the report adds that it is domestic players rather than foreign firms which are growing fastest. It says Micromax, Karbonn and Spice (all Android OEMs) are three examples of homegrown mobile makers with a growth rate of between 200% and 500% on an annual basis." The news of India’s rise in the world of smartphones comes on the back of an  IDC report that said that the smartphone market in Western Europe was slowing down even as it was growing in China and India. In India the smartphone shipments also continued to grow 74 percent year-on-year in Q1 of 2013.  In both markets smartphone is being driven by low cost devices.