back to article Indian phone buyers decide home is where the heart is

In most of the world, Samsung, Apple and MicroNokia battle it out for the crown as the top-selling mobile phone vendor. But in India, local hero Micromax has just taken the crown according to channel-centric analyst firm Canalys which reckons it has 22 per cent of the market, ahead of Samsung's 20 per cent. Canalys reckons …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it about national pride, or about language support?

    It sounds more like it is about proper support of all the local dialects. Samsung and Apple can try all they want, but it would be hard to match (for questionable return in Apple's case, given the price points Indians buying at versus where Apple is selling at)

    1. amolbk

      Re: Is it about national pride, or about language support?

      It's about price, features (including language support).

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it about national pride, or about language support?

      Language is a huge issue in India; I think there's something like 17 major regional languages (Punjabi, Kannada etc) in addition to the national language, Hindi, and English. Many have their own specific scripts, and some regions - Tamil Nadu in particular - are notorious for not even paying lip service to using Hindi. That's before you even get to local dialects; there's one village I know of, consisting of 12 houses, where they speak four distinct dialects, presumably separated along lines of caste and ethnicity.

      So my guess is that while money will play a part, in some states (particularly the rural areas) the localisation will be the major factor among those who don't speak or read Hindi or English.

  2. Alan Denman

    they also aspire to get mugged for more money

    $100 in India must feel like $500 to $1000 over here.

    Luckily there have been few cases of people selling their kidneys for an iPhone.

  3. Squeezer

    Phones with larger batteries for decent life instead of stupidly thin? Whatever will they think of next?

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