Micromax world's 10th largest mobile phone brand in Q1: Gartner

Gartner's data showed the total sales (features and smartphones) stood at 460.3 million units during the first quarter of 2015, a 2.5 percent increase from the year-ago period.
   
Korean firm Samsung led by tally with 21.3 percent share, followed by Apple (13.1 percent), Microsoft (7.2 percent), LG (4.3 percent) and Lenovo (4.2 percent).
  
Others in the top 10 include Huawei (4 percent), Xiaomi (3.2 percent), TCL Communication (3.1 percent), ZTE (2.7 percent) and Micromax (1.8 percent).
  
"In light of their strong smartphone sales in the emerging markets, the Indian and Chinese phone manufacturers increased their footprint during the first quarter of 2015. Six of them were in the top 10 in the first quarter of 2015," Gartner Research Director Anshul Gupta said.
  
Global smartphones sales to end-users witnessed 19.3 percent increase to 336 million units during the first quarter of 2015, led by strong growth in emerging markets (excluding China).
  
The fastest growing regions were emerging Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa, Gartner said.

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Smartphone expansion cooling, prices dropping: survey

A forecast by the research firm IDC indicates smartphone sales of 1.5 billion units in 2015, a rise of 12.2 per cent from the current year's estimate. That would mean growth falling by more than half from the 26 per cent pace of 2014.

The sluggish growth is likely to continue through 2018, IDC said, with the average increase over the period just 9.8 percent.

Significantly, smartphone prices are likely to drop from an average selling price of USD 297 in 2014 to USD 241 by 2018.

Emerging markets like India will see much lower smartphone prices -- USD 135 in 2014 and USD 102 by 2018.

Smartphone revenues "will be hard hit by the increasingly cutthroat nature of pricing," growing just 4.2 percent over the same forecast period, according to IDC.

"The impact of upstart Chinese players in the global market will be reflected in a race to the bottom when it comes to price," IDC analyst Melissa Chau said.

"While premium phones aren't going anywhere, we are seeing increasingly better specs in more affordable smartphones.

Consumers no longer have to go with a top-of-the-line handset to guarantee decent hardware quality or experience. The biggest question now is how much lower can prices go?"

IDC said Google-powered Android devices will continue to dominate the market with 80 per cent of global smartphones and 61 per cent of revenues. Apple's iPhones will represent 13 percent of units sold and 34 per cent of revenues, the report said.

"As shipment volume slows, we expect greater attention to shift toward value trends," said IDC's Ramon Llamas.

"Apple's approach with premium pricing ensures a growing portion of overall revenues despite its declining market share."

Because of Android's dominant position, IDC said new operating systems like Tizen and Firefox will have difficulty gaining a foothold and "must bring a radically different appeal to gain any significant traction," IDC said.

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Samsung Omnia W Price in Chennai

Samsung Omnia W Price in Chennai is Rs 19,900/-. This one is the only Windows 7 phone from Samsung. The Samsung Omnia 7 smartphone from Samsung is a stylish handset which has 4-inch large and high quality super AMOLED screen. It will operate on Windows 7 and runs on a 1GHz Snapdragon Qualcomm CPU. This feature makes it a unique first of its kind device. It covers a standard pixellete area in the figures of 480 x 800 pixels. The device is pretty cool as it has a dashing black color and weighs just 132.8g. It will be endowed with accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensors. The most attracting feature of the smartphone is definitely its sleek look as it is just 11mm wide with wide touchscreen. Build quality is good, with a metal battery cover. Overall, the Omnia 7 feels tough and well made.

Samsung Omnia W Phone Features & Specifications:

-3G/HSDPA
-GSM/GPRS/EDGE
-Large Touchscreen Display
-5 or 8 Megapixels Camera
-16/32GB Internal memory
-Memory Card Slot
-Wi-Fi 802.11n
-Bluetooth v3.0
-Assisted-GPS
-Facebook, Orkut, Twitter
-Instant Messengers
-Push E-mail/SMS/MMS
-Audio/Video Player

Memory
The Samsung Omnia 7 has phonebook memory which has the capacity to store practically umlimited phonebook entries, photo call in its internal memory. Call details can also be retrieved as they are kept in records as received, dialled and missed calls. The internal memory is 8/16 GB.

Battery LifeTime
The standard battery of 1500mAh allows users to talk for upto 5h 40 minutes on 2G and 6 h 10 minutes on 3G networks. The standby time allowed is 390h on 2G and 330h on 3G respectively.

Connectivity
The Samsung Omnia 7 has the wireless connectivity in the form of Stereo Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP. 3G capabilities and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n are its highlight. The GPRS and USB of version 2.0 microUSB enables people to transfer data from PC to mobile and vice versa.

Messaging
The Samsung Omnia 7 supports SMS, MMS, Push and Pull Email, enables people to keep connected from anywhere in the world. Predictive text input feature allows faster texting on Omnia 7.

Browsing
The Samsung Omnia 7 has an in built browser which is HTML. Features as Digital compass, Microsoft office document viewer/editor, MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player, MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player, Organizer, Voice memo are also available on this handset.

Network
The Samsung Omnia 7 is supported on GSM (2G) 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 Mhz and HSDPA (3G) 900 / 2100 MHz network.

Games
The Samsung Omnia 7 is well equipped with games and it also facilitates people to download games as per their requirement.

Navigation
A-GPS support on Omnia 7 makes geographic navigation easier via this handset.

Performance
Samsung Omnia 7 is a Windows 7 phone with 1Ghz CPU which is ideal for business class people, thanks to most synchronized mailing and messaging features. The access to social hubs and browsing via HTML makes it a fast phone in this department. It is also tough and sturdy. It also enjoys quite commendable multimedia options.

Samsung Omnia W Price in Chennai is Rs 19,900/-