Top 12 Mobile Handset manufacturers of the world. Micromax enters

Global mobile phone shipments for the second quarter of 2011 have reached 361 million, of which 110 million are smartphones. While the feature phone is slowly becoming a dying breed, it is what is keeping Nokia on top of the heap. Nokia has shipped 88.5 million phones in Q2 2011 followed by Samsung’s 74 M phones. The gap between Nokia and Samsung is narrowing done. However the gap between Samsung and LG is very wide. LG has shipped 24.8 million phones. Apple which sells just smartphones (iPhones) has occupied the fourth position with 20.3 million phones.

1 in 3 mobile phones are smartphones for Q2 2011.

Apple rules the smartphones

Apple is now the top smartphone vendor followed by Samsung and Nokia. The top 10 positions are occupied by the usual suspects with few manufacturers swapping places. The action or rather upsets are happening outside the top 10 positions. These are the manufacturers which the analytic firms called microvendors. Now these microvendors are threatening the handset makers in the top 10 positions.

Top top global mobile handset manufacturers in Q2 2011 :

1. Nokia (88.5 M)
2. Samsung (74M)
3. LG (24.8)
4. Apple (20.3M)
5. ZTE ( 18 M)
6. RIM
7. HTC (12.1M) 
8. Motorola (11 M)
9. Huawei (9 M) :
10. Sony Ericsson (8 M)
11. Alacatel
12. Micromax (4 M)

Micromax enters the big league

Micromax, which is considered as a microvendor, has shipped 4M phones in Q2 2011 and has occupied 12th position. Micromax has surpassed Lenovo (2.8M), Sharp and NEC in the mobile handset shipments. Micromax’s nearest competitor is Sony Ericsson which shipped 8M phones. 

Micromax entering the big league and eyeing a spot in the top 10 is a remarkable achievement. Micromax is a India based company which started its operations by selling mobile phones in India. Micromax has entered a very crowded market segment and offered variations in its product category by carefully studying the market. The limelight which Micromax now enjoys can be attributed to innovative products, dual SIM phones, and attractive advertising campaigns.

Micromax isn’t content with local play. It is continuing to expand across the world and is following the Think global, act local strategy. For example, given the large coastline of Sri Lanka, Micromax has exclusively targeted fishermen in the island nation and came up with a water proof phone. I’m sure Micromax will have similar strategies in Brazil, Africa and the Middle East.

Micromax which predominantly sells feature phones is making slow progression to smartphones. It has launched 3 Android phones  which now make up 15% of Micromax’s sales. Last week, there was a leak about a possible high-end Android phone from Micromax. Though it is a re-branded phone, Micromax A85 comes with a dual-core nVIDIA processor and competes with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation.

Like I have argued here, Micromax still has to battle with the perception of it being perceived as a value-for-money phone maker. It has to start at sometime. Micromax felt the time is now and why not.

How long before Micromax actually enters the top 10 list?

Note : Alcatel is speculated to be in position 11. The number of phones shipped by Alcatel in Q2 2011 isn’t readily available. The post will be updated with RIM and Alcatel numbers. The data is originated from Strategy Analytics, but it is not in a one single list. The data is gathered through various press releases across the web.

Source : 1, 2, 3, 4

Image Courtesy : Flickr user Garry Knight