Samsung J2 is the most widely used smartphone in India[/caption]The humble Samsung Galaxy J2, launched two years ago, is the most widely used smartphone in India, beating hot-selling models like Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 & 4 CyberMedia Research said.
“Samsung Galaxy J2 emerged as the No 1 Smartphone in India by Installed base in less than 2 years of launch, which underlines the importance of understanding the prospect customer setting the agenda of R&D,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Principal Analyst and general manager at CMR India.
“This smartphone was designed in and for India and fetched Samsung laurels at a time when the competition was at all time high,” he added.
In fact, the model is so popular that it is most widely used mobile handset in Punjab among all phones including featurephones. The survey also found that Punjab leads in terms of uptake of smartphones compared to other states.
The most popular featurephone in India is the Samsung Guru 1200.
The insights were gleaned from Mobilytiks, a big data analytics programme for mobile handsets conducted by CyberMedia Research.
The J-series was arguably the most successful sub-brand of Samsung in the smartphone category in India, and was launched to take on Chinese players like Xiaomi and Lenovo.
The handset, which is no longer available in shops, had very modest specifications such as 1 GB of RAM and a 0.4 MP display.
Two other smartphones — Oppo Neo 7 and Redmi Note 3 Pro — which were introduced in 2016, are also bubbling under and could soon emerge as the most popular models.
“In terms of emerging Smartphone makers (brands launched in India after 2013), Oppo’s Neo 7 is the No 1 emerging Smartphone followed by Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 Pro,” CMR said.
Samsung has since moved on to its ‘On’ branding, and away from J series. Besides, the online market is now dominated by Xiaomi’s Note 3 & 4 handsets, which account for around 50% of the sales in the Rs 10,000-13,000 price range.
Not surprisingly, the most popular smartphones are to be found in the Rs 8,000-9,000 price range.
“The high ranking Smartphones fall in the average price band between Rs 8,000 to 9,000 and this space continues to feed the ‘Value for Money’ segmentm” CMR added.
The analytics platform also revealed other aspects of smartphone usage in India, such as the fact that people who use smartphones refresh their devices more quickly compared to those who use featurephones.
“Typically, featurephone users continue to use 4-5 years old models while smartphone drives quicker replacement where models launched a couple of years ago top the order,” the market research firm said.