TMI survey: Micromax painting on a new Canvas

The average price of handsets from Indian players in this month's report is around Rs 8,600 as compared Rs 17,000 of MNC players.

Micromax's Canvas II A110 is the most sought after smartphone in India in January this year, reveals the Handset Hotlist survey conducted by The Mobile Indian.

A couple of months ago, Micromax launched a new series - Canvas. The two handsets released under this series - Canvas A100 and Canvas A110 - have been a huge hit in India, so much so that the latter is now selling for a higher price than its introductory price.

According to the data, collected by a study of online preferences of over one million people who visited the website (www.themobileindian.com) in January this year, the most searched for smartphone in India is the Micromax A110 Canvas 2. iPhone 5, priced at Rs 43,500, is the second most sought after handset.

Almost all Indian handset players, including Micromax, Karbonn, Spice Mobile and Videocon, have recently launched smartphones with a 4 inch screen or larger, which is the current fad among users. This move seems to have tilted the scales towards Indian players because they are offering users large screen smartphones with reasonable price tags.

Commenting on the survey, a spokesperson of The Mobile Indian says, "Of late, the quality and service delivery of Indian mobile phone marketers has improved and, helping them gain popularity among users."

According to this month's Handset Hotlist report, Indian brands are giving tough competition to MNC players as 12 of the most searched phones were from Micromax, Karbonn, Spice, Videocon and Idea Cellular, as compared to 13 from Samsung, Sony Mobiles, Nokia and Apple. About a year ago an Indian mobile phone rarely figured in the list.

The spokesperson adds, "The average price of handsets from Indian players in this month's report is around Rs 8,600 as compared Rs 17,000 of MNC players."

In this month's Hotlist, six handsets were from Samsung; five were from Micromax; four from Karbonn, three each from Nokia and Sony Mobiles; and one each from Apple, Spice Mobiles, Videocon and Idea Cellular.