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Nokia C5-03 at No. 1, Samsung Galaxy Ace-S5830 fluctuating: TMI survey

Samsung Galaxy Ace-S5830 has reduced its price by Rs 1,650 since October.

The device market is India is quite volatile in terms of its recall value among consumers and the last 11 Handset Hotlist surveys have shown that most handsets that made it to the Top 25 list failed to retain their positions in the subsequent surveys.

Nokia C5-03 and Samsung Galaxy Ace-S5830 had defied this trend since October, 2011. The C5-03 maintained its No. 1 position, while Galaxy Ace-S5830 was able to bag the No. 4 position in October, November and December. Meanwhile, during January, the Samsung handset occupied the tenth position and in this month's survey, it captured the 13th position.

Sreekant Khandekar, director, The Mobile Indian, says, "Nokia C5-03 has not seen any drop in it price since the last five months, while on the other hand Samsung Galaxy Ace-S5830 has reduced its price by Rs 1,650 since October."

Top 25 Handset Hotlist for March 2012

Rank FebRank JanChangeBrandModelPrice (in Rs)3GOSCamera (megapixel)
110NokiaNokia C5 038489YesSymbian5
231NokiaNokia C610500YesSymbian5
3NA0SamsungSamsung Galaxy SL I900319490YesAndroid5
462NokiaNokia Asha 2004239NoS 402
5NA0SamsungSamsung Wave Y S53806938YesBada2
6NA0SamsungSamsung Galaxy Note30890YesAndroid8
7NA0SamsungSamsung Galaxy Y S53607140YesAndroid2
871NokiaNokia 60312799YesSymbian5
9 0SamsungSamsung Champ Deluxe Duos C33124000NoJava1.3
10 0SamsungSamsung Star 3 Duos6290NoJava3.2
11187NokiaNokia Asha 3006150YesS 405
12 0SamsungSamsung Galaxy Y Duos10500YesAndroid3.2
13 0SamsungSamsung Galaxy Ace S583012250YesAndroid5
14195NokiaNokia X2 023270NoS 402
15150NokiaNokia C2 034349NoS402
16237NokiaNokia Lumia 71014790YesWindows5
17 0Sony EricssonSony Ericsson Live with Walkman11400YesAndroid5
18 0Sony EricssonSony Ericsson Xperia Arc S27999YesAndroid8
19 0SamsungSamsung Wave M S725012140YesBada5
20173NokiaNokia 2720 Fold2450NoJava1.3
21147NokiaNokia C2 065189NoS 402
22 0Sony EricssonSony Ericsson Xperia Neo V13990YesAndroid5
23914Sony EricssonSony Ericsson W87259YesAndroid3.15
241314SamsungSamsung C3330 Champ 23975NoJava2
25NA0NokiaNokia N818800YesBelle12

Apart from C5-03 and Galaxy Ace-S5830, three more phones have featured in the last five consecutive Hotlist surveys including this one. These are Samsung-Galaxy-Ace-S5830, Nokia-C6 and Nokia C2-06.

In The Handset Hotlist survey (March 2012), seven of the 11 Nokia phones that made it to the list are low cost phones. In the last few months, Nokia, on one side, has pitched for its Windows Phone operating system-based smartphones and on the other side, has targeted the masses with affordable phones.

Khandekar adds, "Nokia is hitting the right notes with its low cost handsets. Especially with the launch of the Asha series of handsets, Nokia has indicated quite clearly that it will focus on the masses for the time being."

The Handset Hotlist is brought out by The Mobile Indian (www.themobileindian.com) every month. It is based on a study of online preferences of about one million visitors who visited the website in February 2012 and searched for and viewed information about mobiles on the site's Handset section, which lists more than 2,000 models.

According to The Handset Hotlist for March 2012, 11 of the 25 most sought-after mobile handset models are from Nokia. Samsung follows with ten and Sony Ericsson has four.

Khandekar says, "Interestingly, 13 out of the 25 handsets in the list have good cameras, with 10 of them housing 5 megapixel cameras, while the remaining have more powerful ones. Also, 50 per cent of the low cost handsets from Nokia that made it to the list have seen a price correction varying from Rs 150 to Rs 700."

Nokia C5-03, a Symbian handset, was the most searched mobile phone on The Mobile Indian, followed by Stable Mate C6. Samsung Galaxy SL I9003, Nokia Asha 200, Samsung Wave Y S5380, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy Y S5360, Nokia 603, Samsung Champ Deluxe Duos C3312 and Samsung Star 3 Duos were the other phones among the top 10 in the Handset Hotlist.

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