Prabhu RamBesides riding Jio’s success to win the telecom war, there’s another chart that Reliance Industries is topping. The Mukesh Ambani-led company’s feature phone, LYF, became India’s most popular mobile handset brand in January 2018, accounting for 27% of the overall shipments, according to data from market intelligence firm CyberMedia Research (CMR).The main reason for LYF’s increased popularity is that it serves the biggest market segment: feature phones. Most Indians (72%) are still buying these handsets, compared to the 28% going for smartphones, CMR found.
“These results underline the importance and dominance of the feature phones market segment in India,” said Prabhu Ram, head of the industry intelligence group at CMR.
“If LYF is able to maintain its strong performance through the remainder of (the) quarter, we believe it is on course to take the top honors in 1Q 2018,” Ram added, suggesting that LYF is on track to lead total phone shipments this quarter.
