Samsung gains ground against Nokia in India: The Mobile Indian survey

Twenty one of the 25 phones that have made it to The Mobile Indian's list of Top 25 Mobile Handsets are touchscreen phones.

Finnish handset giant Nokia, for the sixth month in a row, has been the most sought after handset brand that Indian consumers search for, as per the Handset Hotlist survey (November 2011) of The Mobile Indian. However, the Finnish handset manufacturer faces stiff competition from Samsung, in India.

According to the latest Handset Hotlist survey for the month of November, Nokia leads the pack with 10 handsets out of the top 25, while Samsung closely follows with nine. Sony Ericsson and Micromax have four and two models, respectively, on the list.

The Handset Hotlist, based on a survey of online preferences, is brought out by The Mobile Indian (www.themobileindian.com) every month.

Sreekant Khandekar, director, The Mobile Indian, says, "Samsung has managed to gain people's attention in both the smartphone and feature phone segment. In this survey too, there are four Samsung smartphones with Android operating system, while the remaining five are feature phones with Java operating system."

About Nokia, Khandekar says, "Since the Hotlist was first released, the C-series of handsets from Nokia has dominated the list, and this time around, 10 handsets of the company has made it to the list, of which six are C-series handsets which are the affordable range of handsets from Nokia's stable."

Nokia C5-03, a Symbian operating system-based handset that costs Rs 8,600, was the most-searched mobile phone on The Mobile Indian, replacing Nokia-C2-03, which held the top position last month. Interestingly, C5-03 has previously occupied the top slot in May, June, July and August.

Samsung Champ 3.5G, Samsung Galaxy S-Plus, Samsung Galaxy R-I9103, and Samsung Primo-S5610, have made it to the list for the first time. In this month's Hotlist, there are four handsets from Sony Ericsson, including three newcomers -- Xperia Neo V, Mix Walkman and Xperia Neo.

Micromax was the biggest loser in the Handset Hotlist as its two handsets, Micromax A70 and X560, lost eight positions to their rivals since the last survey.

Top 10 Indian Challengers

Compared to the Handset Hotlist in which Micromax was the biggest loser, The Top 10 Indian Challengers for November has Micromax dominating the list. It has bagged eight slots while the remaining slots are occupied by Karbonn.

The Challengers list was introduced in August, and has a ranking of the 10 most exciting handsets from Indian marketers, based on the preferences of visitors to the handset guide section of The Mobile Indian.

Commenting on the Challengers list, Khandekar says, "In the Challenger list, a majority of the consumers searched for Java based feature phones -- seven of them made to the list, and their average price is Rs 3,700."

Micromax A70, X560 and X222 retained their top three positions respectively, for the second month in succession. The other handsets that feature in the list are Karbonn-K-1818 and Karbonn-A1.