CP Q2 2018 data: In India, Nokia No. 3 in feature phones, but still not in top 5 in smartphones
It’s that part of the calendar quarter again when companies and analyst post performance reports and analysis about the past financial quarter. Regarding Nokia, the Finnish networks giant will post its Q2 2018 report on July 26th, but in reference to HMD’s Nokia phones, Counterpoint Research today posted some info about Q2 2018 performance in one of HMD’s most important markets – India.
In terms of feature phones, the Nokia brand grew year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, and took the 3rd spot during the second quarter of 2018. The No.1 feature phone manufacturer in India with a 47% market share was Jio, the second was Samsung with 9% – losing 2/3 of its market share compared to the same period last year, while on place 3 we have HMD with 8%, growing more than double from last year and increasing the market share by 1% (and going from place 4 to 3) compared to Q1 this year.
In smartphones, HMD still didn’t make it into top 5. The No. 5 in India was Huawei’s Honor brand with 3% of the market share. The availability of Nokia 1, 6.1, 7 plus and 8 Sirocco didn’t help HMD to break into the top 5 group by market share, but they surely increased the volume of Nokia smartphones sold there.
It’s quite clear that the best value-for-money devices HMD offers at the moment are the Nokia X5 and X6 in China, and a lot of social media users from India are interested in those devices, but under the condition of a competitive pricing just like in China. Maybe HMD should design a special device from X series for India – maybe Nokia X5.5 or something under the Asha brand that will be made and offered exclusively in India via flash sales to keep the inventory costs low. What do you think about that?
Also, for numbers on the global level, we will have to wait a short period of time for Counterpoint and others to post the numbers. Progress in feature phone market share made in India is good, but HMD needs a more serious (read: cheaper) 4G competitor to Jio phone than the Nokia 8110 4G currently is.
