• Nokia, Micromax and E-tel emerge as Top 3 brands; Samsung out of Top 3 but still market leader in the Smartphone category
• Smartphone shipments contribute 15.8% of total handset shipments in 1Q CY 2014; Samsung leads with 27.7% market share, followed by Huawei and E-tel

The Sri Lanka mobile handsets market recorded sales of over 0.76 million units in 1Q (January-March) 2014. This was reported in the Sri Lanka Mobile Handsets Market Review, 1Q 2014, June 2014 release published today by premier IT, Telecoms and Semiconductor & Electronics, Infrastructure and Lifesciences market intelligence and advisory firm CyberMedia Research.

In the overall Sri Lanka mobile handsets market, Nokia emerged as the leader with a 26.2% share, followed by Micromax at second position with 18.3% and E-tel at third position with 11.4%, in terms of unit sales during 1Q CY 2014.

Commenting on the results, Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice said, “Samsung’s displacement from the top 3 brands is definitely a very big thing to witness for this quarter.  However, this could be attributed to the flat Smartphone market QoQ.  To maintain its lead in the overall market it is very essential that the Smartphone market grows in Sri Lanka for Samsung and being the leader as well as one of the significant brands in the mobile industry, it is imperative on Samsung to take the lead in boosting the smartphone sales to make the segment grow.”

Smartphones

Smartphone unit sales (shipments) touched 0.12 million units in Sri Lanka during 1Q CY 2014. Samsung emerged as the leader in the smartphones segment with a 27.7% share in 1Q CY 2014, followed by Huawei with 18.9%. E-tel occupied third place with 13.9% share of shipments during the same period.

“The overall Sri Lanka mobile handsets market witnessed a decline primarily due to higher imports during 4Q 2013 in anticipation of the Chinese New Year holidays. The smartphones market is expected to continue to grow and volume uplift likely, especially in the US$ 50-100 and US$ 150-200 bands for smartphones in the near term”, stated Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

“On the vendor side, Nokia has seen a tremendous growth in its smartphone sales in Sri Lanka, primarily due to tie-ups with almost all mobile operators in the island nation backed by an aggressive marketing campaign. The buyback back offer on some of its devices also led to a surge in sales. Samsung still leads the smartphone category, despite its exit from the ‘Top 3’ brands in the overall mobile handsets market, primarily due to decline of feature phone sales. However, with the recent appointment of three new distributors, the Korean brand may find its way back in the ‘Top 3’ club soon”, Tarun concluded.

Notes for Editors

1. This release is based on the CyberMedia Research (CMR) Sri Lanka Quarterly Mobile Handsets Market Review, published at the conclusion of every quarter.
2. CyberMedia Research (CMR) uses the term “shipments” to describe the number of handsets leaving the factory premises for OEM sales or stocking by distributors and retailers. For the convenience of media, the term ‘shipments’ is sometimes replaced or used interchangeably with “sales” in the press release, but this reflects the market size in terms of units of mobile handsets and not their absolute value. In the case of handsets imported into the country it represents the number leaving the first warehouse to OEMs, distributors and retailers. CyberMedia Research does not track the number of handsets brought on their person by individual passengers landing on Sri Lanka soil from overseas destinations or ‘grey market’ handsets. These are, therefore, not part of the CyberMedia Research numbers reported here.