• Market share of Reliance Jio grew from 12% in 1H FY2016-2017 to 77% in 2H FY2016-2017.
• LTE/4G Data Cards became mainstream with 228% sequential jump in 2H FY2016-2017, in terms of units shipped.
• Market share of Mi-Fi based LTE devices rose from 71% in 1H FY2016-2017 to 94% in the second half.
Gurugram/New Delhi, Thursday, June 22,2017: The Indian Data Cards market registered 107% jump in 2H FY2016-2017 to 3.6 million over 1H FY2016-2017, in terms of units shipped, according to CMR’s India Data Cards Monthly Market Review Mar-17, June 2017 release.
LTE/4G Data Card shipments witnessed 228% sequential rise to 3.3 mn in 2H FY2016-2017. LTE/4G replaced 3G as the most favored technology in the Data Cards market. 3G Data Card shipments declined sequentially by 67% in 2H FY2016-2017, when compared to the first half of FY2016-2017.
“Mi-Fi devices headed the growth of LTE/4G technology in 2H FY2016-2017. LTE based Mi-Fi devices jumped sequentially by 333% in 2H FY2016-2017,” stated Shipra Sinha, Lead Analyst, Industry Intelligence and Channels Research Practices, CyberMedia Research.
“Reliance Jio replaced Huawei as the most favored vendor in 2H FY2016-2017 in terms of market share (Unit shipments). Market share of Reliance Jio grew from 12% in 1H FY2016-2017 to 77% in 2H FY2016-2017 in terms of units shipped due to free data services along with comparatively lower price of its Mi-Fi Data Cards,” Shipra added. 
Huawei shipments plunged sequentially by 36% in 2H FY2016-2017. The vendor’s market share decreased from 33% in 1H FY2016-2017 to 10% in 2H FY2016-2017.
ZTE shipments witnessed 6% sequential growth in 2H FY2016-2017, while other vendors like Alcatel, D-Link saw fall in 2H FY2016-2017.
Reliance Jio model JioFi 3 was the fastest moving model followed by its JioFi 2 on number two position.
Huawei E3372H-607 was on the third spot.
Data Cards with data rate of 150 Mbps contributed around 92% to overall shipments in 2H FY2016-2017.
Around 59% of data cards were sold with operator bundling in 1H FY2016-2017 that increased to around 95% in 2H FY2016-2017.
“Mi-Fi devices is expected to show a rapid growth in the future. In-built battery with anywhere, anytime data connectivity because of the various affordable data plans in Mi-Fi devices are the key features contributing to its growth. Large number of user support with a single device is one of the reasons for the growth in Mi-Fi devices. Significant push by telecom service providers is also making and continue to make Mi-Fi cards the most favored option in India,” Shipra concluded.
