The year 2012 saw several high-profile handset launches. Samsung, for instance, unveiled its much-awaited Galaxy S III device in India after several months of online teasers and leaked product images. Close on its heels were the launches of the Nokia Lumia series, Apple iPhone 5, HTC One X and XOLO X 900.

The competition was sharp and keen in 2012, as global and Indian handset vendors flooded the market with devices in the high-, medium- and low-range segments. An interesting trend that emerged in 2012 was a foray by global haandset majors into the low-cost device segment, which had been dominated by Indian handset makers over the past few years. Besides, the market witnessed the launch of several smartphones priced below Rs 10,000, which accounted for over 91 per cent of the overall mobile phone sales in 2012. A few notable handset launches in this context were Lava International Limited?s S 12, Micromax Informatics? Canvas A 100, and Spice Mobile?s Mi-350n.

In terms of the broader trends witnessed in the market, during January-June 2012, over 10.8 million 3G handsets, 70.7 million multi-SIM handsets and 5.5 million smartphones were sold in India. Company-wise, Samsung was at the top of the smartphone pecking order, followed by Nokia. Manufacturers like ZTE, Micromax and Karbonn Mobile were in the sixth, seventh and twelfth positions respectively.

Meanwhile, the most widely deployed mobile operating systems (during the period under consideration) were Android (56.4 per cent market share), Symbian (17.4 per cent), BlackBerry OS (12.1 per cent), Bada (8.5 per cent), iOS (3 per cent) and Windows Mobile (2.6 per cent).

Smartphones are expected to be at the forefront in the Indian handset space over the next few years as well. If the handset segment is estimated to grow to Rs 600 billion over the next two years, smartphones are expected to account for over 30 per cent of the segment. The devices will house more advanced processors and be bundled with technologies like near field communication and 4G, and various applications.

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Nokia

Once a dominant but now an ailing handset vendor, Nokia spent the better part of 2012 trying to reverse its fortunes in India. The launch of smartphones by vendors such as Samsung, Apple and Research In Motion has, over the years, squeezed profit margins and forced the companies to rethink their market strategy. In line with this, in 2011, the company entered into a partnership with Microsoft and made a transition to the Windows operating system.

Thereafter, it launched the Lumia series of handsets, the most popular ones being the Nokia Lumia 610 and the Nokia Lumia 808 PureView. The Lumia 610, priced at Rs 12,999, is the most affordable in the series and is aimed at introducing the Windows operating system to first-time smartphone users. The touchscreen device packs in 8 GB of internal memory and a 5 megapixel camera. The Lumia 808 PureView, on the other hand, is a high-end smartphone priced at Rs 33,899. Its most notable feature is a 41 megapixel camera. The device also features 512 MB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage and a 1.3 GHz ARM11 processor.

While both devices received a satisfactory response, the company still faced stiff competition, as its handsets were more expensive than the low-end Android devices offered by other vendors. To compete in the low-end segment, Nokia rolled out its Asha series of devices, both in the single- and double-SIM categories. With these devices, the company aimed at making the user interface of a feature handset similar to that of a smartphone. Nokia currently offers 10 devices in the Asha series, priced between Rs 4,000 and Rs 9,000. As per market estimates, in the fourth quarter of 2012, Nokia sold over 9.3 million units in the Asha series, more than double the number of units of the Lumia series shipped to the country.

Samsung

In 2012, Samsung continued its successful run with the Galaxy series of devices, launched in 2010. Since then, the company has ousted Nokia from the top position in the Indian smartphone market, driven by the sales of its Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II devices.

Towards end-May 2012, Samsung launched the Galaxy S III hand-held, priced at Rs 43,180. The device packs in an AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colours, the TouchWiz user interface and the Class 12 GPRS facility. As per company estimates, over 30 million units of the Galaxy S III have been sold in India since its launch. In comparison, the S II device took 14 months to reach the 30 million unit mark while the Galaxy Note reached just 3 million units in 37 days.

Interestingly, when Apple released iPhone 5 with the campaign tagline ?The best thing to happen to iPhone is iPhone 5?, Samsung countered it by claiming that the ?next big thing? was already available, that is, the Samsung Galaxy S III. According to data released by Strategy Analytics, the Samsung Galaxy S III accounted for 11 per cent of all smartphones shipped globally and overtook Apple Inc.?s iPhone 4S in the third quarter of 2012.

Apple Inc.

Six months after the Samsung Galaxy S III was released in the country, Apple Inc. launched the iPhone 5 device in India, at a starting price of Rs 45,500, in partnership with Redington and Ingram Micro. The device was also available on Bharti Airtel?s and Aircel?s networks, bundled with data plans.

The iPhone 5 packs in a 4 inch Retina display; an Apple-designed A6 chip; and operates on the iOS 6 platform. It also features the Maps application with Apple-designed cartography and turn-by-turn navigation; Facebook integration; Passbook organisation; and support for Siri features and languages. Industry estimates suggest that the device has performed better than the previous iPhone variants, with over 200,000 units being shipped as of end-December 2012. In comparison, between April and June 2012, Apple shipped less than 50,000 units of the iPhone 4S to the country.

HTC

Since its entry into the Indian handset space, HTC has kept a relatively low profile. According to industry estimates, it ranked eighth amongst the top 10 handset vendors at the beginning of 2012.

In an attempt to enhance its share in the Indian smartphone market, the company overhauled its strategy to focus more on handset features instead of hardware specifications. Thereafter, it launched the One series of Android devices. The most popular device in this series is the HTC One X handset, which runs on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and features a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor, 32 GB of internal memory and 1 GB of RAM. HTC One X is priced at Rs 38,000 and has sold over 200,000 units as of end-November 2012, according to industry estimates.

Operator offerings

In an attempt to popularise data services, several operators launched their own offerings in the handset space. These were mostly low-cost devices that were aimed at providing data and application access at affordable prices.

For instance, Beetel Teletech launched the GD 777 touchscreen mobile phone. Priced at Rs 5,499, the handset has a 5 megapixel camera and FM radio. It supports expandable memory up to 16 GB, Java, GPRS, WAP and EDGE connectivity. The GD 777 also supports various instant messenger platforms and 3D games, and can be used as a webcam. Similarly, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited launched the Penta TPAD and the Penta TPAD IS703C, priced at Rs 3,499 and Rs 6,700 respectively.

Going forward, the Indian handset space is expected to maintain this growth momentum. In 2013, mobile handset sales in India are likely to reach 251 million units, an increase of 13.5 per cent over 2012. The mobile handset market is expected to show steady progress throughout 2016, when end-user sales are expected to surpass 326 million units.