4G smartphone sales grow 3-fold in July-Sept

New Delhi : Smartphone shipments in India jumped 21.4 per cent in the July-September quarter to 28.3 million units, buoyed by a three-fold jump in demand for 4G-enabled devices, according to a research firm IDC.

Smartphone shipments stood at 23.3 million units in the same period a year ago. The shipments increased over six per cent from 26.5 million units in the April-June 2015 quarter. "The growth in the smartphone market was helped by rising demand for affordable 4G smartphones," IDC Senior Market Analyst Client devices Karthik J said in a statement.

In the third quarter, 4G-enabled devices witnessed almost three-fold increase in shipments over the previous quarter and one out of three smartphones shipped was 4G-enabled, IDC said. "E-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon continue to drive shipments of the Chinese vendors, who have been aggressively trying to capture the 4G smartphone market in India," Karthik said. Samsung emerged as the biggest 4G player in India with its popular sub-$150 LTE models such as Galaxy Grand Prime and Galaxy J2, IDC said.