Motorola has 14% market share in India

Posted on | November 29, 2006 |

Motorola has become the No. 2 in handset sales in India with a market share of 14%. Market leader Nokia has a market share upwards of 60%.

The ET story says Motorola had a 2% market share in December 2005. I think thats incorrect.

According to this post — Motorola was already No. 3 in March 2006, behind Nokia and Samsung. There are three stories on Mobile Pundit from 2005 which put Motorola’s market share between 5 to 10 per cent around a year back.

Nokia’s market share rises to 74% (May 2005)
Motorola’s market share = 4.5%

Edward Zander of Motorola in India (August 2005)
Motorola’s market share = 10%

Indian Mobile Handset Market (September 2005)
Motorola’s market share = 7%

Allen Burnes, speaking on the sidelines of the global launch of its entry-level Motofone handset, added its initial sales would be primarily driven in India by bundling.

“Our bundled offers are mainly with first-time buyers,” said Lloyd Mathias, marketing director for India. “We are getting a lot of traction in the low-end market. One of our focus areas for 2007 is building a retail presence.”

Motorola has tied up with top five Indian carriers such as Airtel, BSNL and Hutch to offer handsets to customers.

Over the past two years Motorola has launched a slew of trendy handsets at many price levels. It is also setting up a handset-making unit in Chennai.

Motorola is planning to extend its interest-free financing tie-up with GE Finance Ltd to the country’s top 35 cities — which account for 60 per cent of new handsets sales — from 10 cities now.

Motorola rejigged its Indian operations last year and renewed focus on this high-growth market under the supervisions of its emerging marketing expert Allen Burnes. Former Tata Tele chairman Firdose Vandrevala joined the company as head of Indian operations a year back.

Tidbit: The size of Indian handset market has increased to $3 billion.

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