Micromax is within reaching distance to become India’s largest smartphone maker. The phone company now only falls behind Samsung, commanding 22% market share in India. This is a leap from the 18.8% market share in the first quarter. Micromax’s growth is a result of two factors. The first factor is the decline in India’s currency in the past six months. This has made importing smartphones more expensive and Micromax’s devices significantly cheaper. The second factor is Micromax’s heavy focus on rolling out super-sized phones known as phablets, which now account for 30% of the Indian smartphone market.

 

Micromax’s growth illustrates the consumer demand in the mobile market in developing markets. To thrive, phone manufacturers have to ditch their top-of-the-line, more expensive phones and move towards more economical models. The reason is that consumers in emerging markets are still concerned about the total cost of device ownership. And if companies such as Apple and Samsung want to have the same success they had in developed economies, they will have to take this radical leap.

 

Read the whole article at Mashable.