Indian brands turn on the heat with Android, innovative features: TMI Survey

The Android operating system-based Karbonn A9, priced at Rs 9200, is the second most sought after handset in India, according to the monthly survey of The Mobile Indian.

The Android operating system has taken the smartphone market by storm, and currently enjoys a market share of around 55 per cent worldwide. In India, too, consumers have been drawn to the platform, especially towards affordable Android-based handsets. Indian handset marketers seem to have capitalised on consumer sentiment quite rightly and this is reflected in the Handset Hotlist survey (June, 2012) of The Mobile Indian.

In the Handset Hotlist survey, brought out by The Mobile Indian (
www.themobileindian.com
), three of the 15 Android handsets that made it to the list are from Indian players - Karbonn and Micromax. Though the numbers are still small, it just may signal a change towards Indian brands.

In this month's survey, the Nokia C5-03 maintained its No. 1 position for a record ninth consecutive month but the surprise entry is the Karbonn A9, which became the second most searched phone from a list of around 2,000 handsets listed on the site.

Also, this month, there was no price correction in any of the handsets that made it to the Handset Hotlist and as many 10 new handsets featured in the list for the first time.

Samsung, which has been in the news for its Galaxy S III, has maintained its reputation as the brand with the most sought after models. In the Handset Hotlist for June, 12 of the top 25 handsets are from Samsung. Nokia, on the other hand, continued its downward movement as only four of its handsets made it to the popular chart as against six handsets in our last survey.

In June's Hotlist, Sony has three models; Micromax two; and one each from Spice Mobiles, BlackBerry and HTC.

Commenting on the survey, the spokesperson of The Mobile Indian says, "Of late, Indian players are launching smartphones, especially on the Android platform and that too at an affordable price. This is generating a lot of excitement among the price conscious consumers."

The spokesperson adds, "Samsung's strategy of launching phones at regular intervals in India is also getting results as all the latest handsets of the company, including the Samsung Galaxy S III, are getting featured in the list."

The Handset Hotlist survey (June, 2012) is based on a study of online preferences of about one million people who visited the website in May, 2012 and searched for and viewed information about mobiles on the site's Handset section, which lists more than 2,000 models.