Jio pips Huawei as No.1 in Indian data cards

New Delhi - Market registers 107% jump in second half of financial year 2016-17

With a surge in 4G adoption in the country, Reliance Jio has replaced Huawei as the most favoured 4G/LTE data card vendor in terms of market share/unit shipments in the second half of financial year 2016-17.
"Market share of Reliance Jio grew from 12 per cent in the first half to 77 per cent in the second half due to free data services along with comparatively lower price of its Mi-Fi data cards," Shipra Sinha, lead analyst for industry intelligence and channels research practices at CyberMedia Research, said in a statement late on Thursday.
Huawei shipments plunged sequentially by 36 per cent. The vendor's market share decreased from 33 per cent in the first half to 10 per cent in the second.
ZTE shipments witnessed a six per cent sequential growth while other vendors like Alcatel and D-Link fell.
The Indian data cards market registered a 107 per cent jump in the second half of financial year 2016-17 to 3.6 million over the first half in terms of units shipped, CMR's monthly market review said.
"Mi-Fi devices led the growth of LTE/4G technology in the second half. LTE based Mi-Fi devices jumped sequentially by 333 per cent in the same period," Sinha added.
Mi-Fi is a portable broadband device that allows multiple end users and mobile devices to share a 3G or 4G mobile broadband Internet connection.
LTE/4G data card shipments witnessed 228 per cent sequential rise to 3.3 million in the second half.

• India