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Nokia steals the show with Lumia, Asha: The Mobile Indian survey

15 of the phones that made it to The Mobile Indian's list of Top 25 mobile handsets have dropped prices by up to Rs 500.

In October 2011, Nokia had unveiled the Asha line up, a series of lower-end mobile phones that run on Series 40 operating system, to show its commitment to emerging markets, especially India. Two months later, it launched the Lumia, a Windows operating system -based smartphone series to increase its upper-end base.

Nokia steals the show with Lumia, Asha: The Mobile Indian survey
Nokia's dual strategy of luring customers to both low-end and smartphone segments seems to be paying off. This also mirrors in 'The Handset Hotlist' survey in January 2012. Asha 200, 300 and Lumia 800 made it to the list as soon as they hit the Indian market.

The Handset Hotlist is brought out by The Mobile Indian (www.themobileindian.com) every month. It is based on a survey of online preferences of over one million visitors who visited the site in December 2011, and searched for and viewed information about mobiles on the site's Handset section, which lists more than 1,500 models.

Sreekant Khandekar, director, The Mobile Indian, says, "Two mobile phones of Asha series and one from Lumia have made it to the list instantly on launch. This is rare. Normally, phones take a few months to gain popularity."

Khandekar adds, "Another interesting trend seen in the hotlist is that 15 out of the 25 handsets in the list have seen a price reduction varying from Rs 100 to Rs 500 compared to last month."

According to The Handset Hotlist for January 2011, 12 of the 25 most-sought after mobile phones are from Nokia. Samsung follows with eight, Sony Ericsson with four and Micromax has one model.

Nokia C5-03, a Symbian operating system-based handset, was the most searched mobile phone on The Mobile Indian, followed by arch rival Samsung's Galaxy Pro-B7510 and Galaxy SLI9003, which occupied second and third slots, respectively.

Apart from Nokia's Asha 200, 300 and Lumia 800, five other phones made it to this month's Hotlist for the first time. This includes Samsung Galaxy SL I9003, Nokia 603, Samsung C-3330 Champ-2 and the Samsung Hero Music E1232B.

Micromax A70 was the only handset from an Indian handset player to have made it to the Handset Hotlist.

Top 25 Handset Hotlist for December 2011

Rank DecRank NovChangeBrandModelPrice in Rs.3GOS
110NokiaNokia-C5-037300YesSymbian
21210SamsungSamsung-Galaxy-Pro-B75108500YesAndroid
3NANewSamsungSamsung-Galaxy-SL-I900318440YesAndroid
440SamsungSamsung-Galaxy-Ace-S583013900YesAndroid
51611SamsungSamsung-Galaxy-Y-S53607350YesAndroid
63-3NokiaNokia-70016299YesSymbian
76-1NokiaNokia-C611900YesSymbian
8NANewNokiaNokia-60313550YesSymbian
9NANewSamsungSamsung-C3330-Champ-24010NoJava
102-8NokiaNokia-70117850Yessymbian
11NANewNokiaNokia-Asha-2004370NoS 40
12NANewSamsungSamsung-Hero-Music-E1232B1599NoJava
135-8NokiaNokia-C2-065700NoS 40
14NANewNokiaNokia-Asha-3006715YesS 40
156-9NokiaNokia-C2-034810NoS40
1610-6MicromaxMicromax-A707500YesAndroid
1711-6NokiaNokia-C2-024289NoS 40
1813-5Sony EricssonSony-Ericsson-Mix-Walkman6500NoJava
197-12SamsungSamsung-Star-II-Duos-C67126200NoJava
2017-3NokiaNokia-2720-fold2500NoJava
21NANewNokiaNokia-Lumia-80029999YesWindows
2218-4Sony EricssonSony-Ericsson-Xperia-Neo18000YesAndroid
23241Sony EricssonSony-Ericsson-W89300YesAndroid
2422-2SamsungSamsung-Galaxy-pop-S55708350YesAndroid
2519-6Sony EricssonSony-Ericsson-Xperia-Neo-V18000YesAndroid

Top 10 Indian Challengers

Lava Mobiles made its entry into the Top 10 Indian Challengers list for the first time in January. Micromax, which had bagged six slots in last month's report, was able to garner only five this month.

The Challengers List was introduced in August 2011 and ranks the 10 most exciting handsets from Indian marketers, based on the preferences of visitors in the handset guide section of The Mobile Indian.

Commenting on the Challengers list, Khandekar says, "We saw Micromax reducing the price of its A-85, which is the only high-end smartphone in its portfolio, by around Rs 4,000."

This month, six new phones made it to the Challenger List, including Micromax Superphone A75, Spice Mobiles M 5455-Flo, Beetel GD470, Lava Mobiles M70, Spice Mobiles Mi 350n and Karbonn-K-1616.

Top 10 Indian challengers for January 2012

   Top 10 Indian challengers    
Rank DecRank NovChangeBrandModelPrice in Rs.3GOS
110MicromaxMicromax-A707500Yes5
2NANewMicromaxMicromax-Superfone-A758990Yes3
3NANewSpiceSpice-Mobiles-M-5455-Flo2020No1.3
4NANewBeetelBeetel GD4702345No1.3
5105MicromaxMicromax-X784770No3.2
6NANewLavaLava-Mobiles-M704820No5
72-5MicromaxMicromax-A8515200Yes5
8NANewSpiceSpice-Mobiles-Mi-350n7710Yes3.2
9NANewKarbonnKarbonn-K-16164480No3.2
105-5MicromaxMicromax-X5603770No2
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