With 4G LTE networks slowly but steadily getting rolled out in India, consumers are already looking to future-proof their new purchases by buying compatible smartphones. And it looks like Apple already has a lead start in this segment of smartphones. During the fourth quarter of 2014, Apple had 45 percent market share of 4G LTE smartphones in India, followed by HTC at 19 percent and Samsung at 16 percent. Apple dominates the tablet space even more with a 70.6 percent market share of 4G LTE enabled tablets followed by Lenovo at 28.7, according to Cybermedia Research.
4G devices’ sales have seen a boom after brands like Xiaomi, Oneplus and Lenovo also joined the club to ship 4G LTE devices at competitive prices. Though the LTE services are offered only in a few cities in the country, sales of these devices have not been affected at all. Micromax is the only Indian brand that shipped LTE devices in the last quarter of 2014.
Now more home-grown brands like Lava, Karbonn and Intex are also looking forward to foraying into the promising LTE devices market. As far as the LTE datacard market is concerned, Alcatel takes the top position with 83 per cent share followed by Huawei with 17 per cent.
