Currently, Android is controlling over 68.2% of the global smartphone OS market share, beside 1.3 million Android devices are being activated every day. Google reportedly shipped 104.8 million smartphone in just Q2 of this year and it’s quite ahead of its nearest rival Apple in terms of smartphone shipments. Android has shown an unprecedented 106.5% year-over-year growth in Q2 2012.
Just a few months before, Google revealed at its I/O developers event that emerging markets like Brazil and Thailand, where Android market share grew up by 500% in the last one year. Undoubtedly, Indian smartphone market is currently flourished with Android phones. The success of Android in matured markets is due to its high-end expensive handsets, but in India, the popularity of Android phones is due to low-end affordable handsets. Interestingly, India recorded 87% growth in terms of smartphone shipments in 2011 compare to the previous year.
In India, Samsung is leading over other players with 49% market share  and the company has played a significant role in the proliferation of Android OS across the country. On the other hand, Huawei, Micromax, Spice and ZTE are more likely to boost Android market share in the upcoming years in the country.
By the end of 2015, 340 million low-cost Android smartphone are expected to ship in India. At present, the market is still being dominated by Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) versions, however, a significant number of vendors are yet to deploy Android ICS. One more important point, Google announced at I/O event this year that Android latest Jelly Bean would come with inbuilt-in Hindi support.
Until the end of the last year, Symbian was leading in India with 46.6% market share, followed by Android 28.2% and BlackBerry with 13.3% market share. But, this time, it seems that Android is growing in India at the cost of Symbian and Blackberry. The impact of global decline of Symbian’s market share can be seen in India too, while BlackBerry is also bleeding this time in the country.
In India, approximately 20 million smartphones are expected to be shipped in 2011, up from 11.2 million in the last year. Of course, the shipment projection has created an opprotunity for Android to fuel up its market share—expecting to grab more than half of the Indian OS market share. As the demand of Samsung smartphone is mounting up, definitely, it will stimulate to the market share of its own OS–Bada.
Due to affordable price tags and strong mobile ecosystem, Android phones are going to outburst the market in upcoming years. It’s also estimated that Android would capture 80% of Indian market by 2015. Then, there’s a question; What will happen to other potential rivals? Astoundingly, Apple is still struggling to make stronger penetration in India, while users’ trust are continuously deteriorating day-by-days from Nokia’s Symbian.
Image credit: Convergence Catalyst
