Micromax now among top 10 global smartphone vendors; Huawei records highest growth: Gartner

Gartner’s third quarter 2015 report has pointed out that worldwide smartphone sales are being driven by emerging markets such as India and China. The same report also summarises that it is the affordable, Android-powered smartphones that are driving worldwide smartphone sales as of the Q3 2015. The reason for this, according to Gartner Research Director, Anshul Gupta is that affordable Android smartphones are making it easier for feature phone users to upgrade to a smartphone. And this makes good sense as the prices of entry level Android smartphones these days has dropped from an average Rs 10,000 to about Rs 7,000 with some entry-levels 4G capable models selling for as low as Rs 5000. While Samsung kept trying its level best by moving on to an even quicker product release cycle, to be on top, Huawei recorded the highest growth worldwide up from 5.2 percent in 3Q14 to 7.7 percent. Micromax becomes the newcomer to the top 10 global mobile phone vendors list, while Chinese brands such as Xiaomi carried on with their sales momentum, again in emerging markets. In terms of operating systems, Android continues to be the worldwide leader with 1.4 percent gain in market share over last year and still remains at 84.7 percent compared to Apple that seems to fighting an uphill battle at 13.1 percent. Microsoft even with the launch of Windows 10 for desktop (and soon on smartphones) did not move up but dropped down from 3 percent to 1.7 compared to last year. BlackBerry as always seems to be in tight spot and things may get a bit complicated as it has begun the roll out of its Android-powered Priv smartphone this year.