To many this may come as a surprise that a lesser known company Micromax is the third largest mobile handset vendor in India by Sales behind Nokia and Samsung.
Micromax followed a different strategy of hitting the bottomg of the pyramid and managed to make significant inroads riding on the multi-SIM phenomenon in semi-urban & rural areas.
According to Citi report,
Micromax is currently selling 1m handsets/month (700k in Dec’09) with 95% being in dual-SIM segment. Its rural focus in the first 12-18 months (entered urban markets only 4 months back) highlights the prevalence of dual-SIM even in the low end semiurban/ rural markets.
Nokia the market leader is yet to enter this segment. Dual-SIM handsets at the time when multi-SIM phenomenon was at its infancy and thought to be urban centric has helped Micromax garner a 10% market share.
Micromax is now focused on building brand in the urban market and enjoys the first mover advantage, though competition from established player may not be far off as entry barrier remains low.
Hi, I was hoping you might be able to tell me the name of the Citi Report you mentioned above. This is very interesting about Micromax and I’d like to know more about the growing trend of Indian OEMs entering the market.