As we wait for the commercial launch of Reliance Jio 4G telecom, its LYF branded android smartphones from Reliance Digital seems already hit among the Indian masses.
According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service, Reliance’s own LYF branded smartphones have become the fifth largest smartphone vendor in India and all this within four months of launch.
In the first quarter of 2016, Reliance Digital shipped around 1.7 million LYF branded smartphones that captured 7 percent of the Indian smartphone shipment share, displacing other Indian vendors including Lava and Karbonn. It thus made way to becoming one of the top five smartphone brands in India in terms of shipment volumes.
Interestingly LYF brand smartphones also become the second largest 4G LTE mobile vendor in India surpassing Micromax and Lenovo during Q1 2016 and now with only global mobile giant Samsung in front of it.
“This is the level of scale Jio is targeting once it switches on its LTE network later this year,” said Tarun Pathak, Senior Analyst with Counterpoint. “We estimate, this quarter strong shipment was more of channel filling, the actual sell-through will happen in Q2 2016 as the operator starts full-fledged marketing and promotional activity,” he added.
Other interesting findings from the research include –
- Samsung still dominates Indian smartphone market, thanks to its new flagship devices Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. Also, company’s Make in India initiative seems to be paying off well with it’s entry-level and mid-range android smartphones.
- With 3G making way for 4G LTE, two out of every three smartphones shipped in India are LTE capable.
- One in three smartphones shipped was powered by a MediaTek processor.
- Micromax’s YU brand saw a growth of 8% in the first quarter of 2016.
- Lenovo including Motorola dropped to the fourth position in the smartphone segment, mainly due intense competition in the 10K price segment.
- Apple recorded 62% annual growth in the first quarter.
Reliance Jio is gearing up for its full-fledged pan-India 4G LTE service rollout during the mid-2016 and to prepare for it, the company has earlier launched high-end LYF Earth, mid-range LYF Water and entry level LYF Flame and LYF Wind series 4G smartphones.