India Overtakes the US To Become the World's Second Largest Smartphone Market (techcrunch.com)

A reader shares a report: Move over America, India is now the world's second largest smartphone market. That's according to a new report from Canalys which claims smartphone shipments in India crossed the 40 million mark for the first time in Q3 2017 courtesy of 23 percent annual growth. That means that India has overtaken the U.S. on sales with only China ahead of it. Given the huge gulf in populations -- India's stands at over 1.3 billion while the U.S. is around 320 million -- the move had been expected for some time, but recent developments, including demonetization in late 2016, set progress back during recent quarters. "This growth comes as a relief to the smartphone industry. Doubts about India's market potential are clearly dispelled by this result," Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt said in a statement.

Comments

Re:I DROPPED MY PHONE IN THE LOO

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you aren't in India. Otherwise you would say "I dropped my phone on the sidewalk"

Tech Support

[Zorro]

So where do they out source their Tech Support to? ;)

Re:An irony (?)

[Lobachevsky]

Any CEO of Microsoft, even if they hired an orangutan, would have withdrawn from the phone market, because Windows Mobile is junk and you can't even convince illiterate people to get one instead of an Android.

Re:Shocking I tell you

[Joce640k]

Relax: The USA's smartphones still have bigger screens and generate much more CO2 when you use them.

There is some trouble brewing.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

In India there is no standard universal ID that could be used to track you and find you. If you don't look like a foreigner you can disappear into the crowds and acquire an Indian identity and passport. So many people from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Burma have done that. Government is trying to create something called Aadhar (meaning proof) to create a nationwide id system. Lots of opposition to Aadhar.

Government wants the cell phones to be tied to Aadhar. To combat terrorism, they say. Some states are opposing this.

This requirement could drag down phone sales and market size. Or a scramble to acquire more burner phones before the Aadhar tie up is completed.