Why Are Qualcomm And MediaTek Working With Disappearing Indian Smartphone Brands?

A move that has come nothing short of a boon for the Indian mobile manufacturers; SoC giants ( or System on a Chip manufacturer like Qualcomm and MediaTek) have said that they will be working with the indigenous mobile handset manufacturers in India to help them make a comeback in the Indian mobile market.

The news comes out in a time when the local mobile manufacturers like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Intex are experiencing, sort of, a total wipe-out from the Indian Markets, at the hands of the Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.

Before we dig deep to analyze how SoC have planned to help Indian smartphone manufacturers, and whether the local manufacturers could really leverage on it, let’s first understand why – and how – do Indian smartphone manufacturers are in a desperate need of such push from the mobile hardware industry leaders.

The Fall of Local Handset Manufacturers in India

The top four Indian mobile manufacturers comprise of Micromax, Lava Intex and Karbonn. These local handset manufacturing companies controlled a sizable share ( up to 41% ) of the Indian mobile market in Q1 2016. However, come Q1 2017 and they marked a sharp decline in their percentage of market share, tumbling down to a mere 14%.

On the other hand, the much neglected and underestimated Chinese handsets manufacturers, which had held a mere 15% share of the India smartphone shipments in Q1 2016, witnessed a meteoric rise. In the following one year – by the end of Q1 2017 – the Chinse smartphone OEMs, especially including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, had noted a mind-boggling jump in their shares ( up to 51%) of smartphone shipments in India.

The article was originally published on Dazeinfo Media and Research

[Click to continue reading ...]