Just 15.2 million smartphones sold in India during 2012

Despite strong growth in the Indian mobile phone market, just 15.2 million smartphones were sold in India during 2012, compared to 206 million featurephones, according to recent figures.

The CyberMedia Research (CMR) figures, republished by the Times of India, show the overall mobile phone market in India grew from 183.4 million handsets in 2011 to 221.6 million in 2012.

Featurephones continue to dominate the market, growing from 172.2 million in 2011 to 206.4 million in 2012.

By contrast, despite a strong 35.7% year-on-year growth rate, smartphone sales totalled just 15.2 million units in 2012, up from 11.2 million in 2011.

The figures also show Nokia was the dominant player in the market with a 21.8% marketshare, followed by Samsung on 13.7% and local handset maker Micromax coming third with 6.6% of the market.

In the smartphone market, Samsung claimed a massive 43.1% of the market, followed by Nokia on 13.3% and Sony on 8.2%, with BlackBerry and Apple falling outside the top three.

The latest figures contradict earlier figures, reported in SmartCompany, showing Apple holding around 9% of the Indian smartphone market, behind BlackBerry on 12.1%, Nokia on 19.2% and Samsung on 41.6%.