Reliance JioPhone turns No. 1 in global feature phone market, beats Nokia, Samsung

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries has another big triumph to its credit after having disrupted the Indian telecom market since it unleashed Reliance Jio. Even as the nation gorged on the free data and calls that it made available, rival companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, to name a few, suffered a massive hit to their revenues as they too scrambled to provide dirt cheap services to users or else face mass exodus by subscribers. While the data war was raging, Reliance Jio jumped into the hardware part too with its virtually free JioPhone. The phone was an instant hit along with the data services. How successful? Well, with a share of some 15 per cent, the JioPhone has just been ranked No. 1 in the global feature phone market in the first quarter of 2018. Notably, it left some very big names eating the dust as it zipped past them. While Nokia HMD was at number 2, iTel, Samsung and Tecno followed. This was revealed today by a new  report  by research firm Counterpoint that was released on Thursday.

However, Reliance Jio cannot afford to rest easy as the rivals in the global feature phone market are virtually breathing down its neck. Nokia HMD has as much as 14 per cent market share, iTel has 13 per cent, Samsung has surprisingly, just 6 per cent alongside Tecno. Significantly, the numbers show that there has been an overall growth in the market. 

Driven by strong shipments of Reliance JioPhone in India and the return of Nokia HMD, the global feature phone market actually grew 38 per cent annually in the first quarter of 2018, the report showed.

Counterpoint statement said, "There are still around half-a-billion feature phones sold every year and these continue to serve the needs of the roughly two billion feature phones users globally. This is still a huge market catering to a diverse user base, many of whom still prefer feature phones over smartphones" .

The numbers emanating from India are massive indeed, as per the report. It showed that the country alone contributed almost 43 per cent of the total feature phone shipments in the first quarter of 2018.

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As far as the future for the mobile industry is concerned, in this age of smartphones, the humble feature phone still has the opportunity to take advantage of a vast market as the potential is still massive, says report.