Yes, the feature phone market still exists, especially in developing and under-developed countries. Although Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone brand, it ranks third in the feature phone market as per a new market report. Counterpoint Research stated in its new report that over 74 million feature phones (cheap phones with numeric keypads) were sold during Q3 2020.
Samsung is tied with Tecno to third place in the feature phone market, and it has a market share of 10%. According to the new report, the South Korean tech giant sold 7.4 million feature phones during the third quarter of this year. In India, Samsung’s feature phone market share was 18% in India. iTel is the world’s biggest feature phone brand, with a market share of 24%. HMD Global, which sells Nokia-branded devices, has a 14% share of the feature phone market. India’s Lava is the fifth-largest brand in the global feature phone market.
In the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, which is the world’s largest feature phone market, Samsung stood at the fourth position with a market share of just 2%. The feature phone market is contracting year after year, and shipments declined 17% in July-September 2020 quarter compared to Q3 2019.
