Sony becomes the second biggest smartphone brand in India

Sony has become the number two smartphone brand in India in terms of value sales, according to IDC numbers, says a report in the Economic Times.    The report says that IDC numbers show Sony with a 9.1 percent value share in the Indian smartphone market in the October-December quarter of 2013 against Apple’s 7 percent share. Samsung is on top with a 43 percent value share.   Value share means that if a consumer spent Rs 100 on buying a mobile, then Samsung got Rs 43, Sony got Rs 9.1 and Apple got Rs 7. However Sony could lose in this quarter due to Nokia’s entry into Android market and with Apple’s relaunch of the iPhone 4 which is in the Rs 20,000 category.   For Apple, the loss of the second spot in the brand value is not good news given that both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were launched in this period. Despite the fact that Apple did see a strong user demand in the early phase of the launch, clearly it wasn’t enough to boost Apple’s value share.   As far as smartphone business is concerned, for Sony, this could even outdo the television business in India. For Sony the devices that seem to have done well, such as Xperia C and Xperia L, fall in the sub-Rs 20,000 price category, which has arguably seen the biggest growth in India.   Kenichiro Hibi, managing director at Sony India, told ET, that “Sony’s smartphone business has attained similar revenues as its flagship television business in the fiscal ended March 31 and that the company expects it to overtake the television business in this fiscal year.”