Samsung stood second in the feature phone category with a share of 15% while domestic handset maker Lava grabbed the third spot with a market share of 13%. Unlike the smartphone market, which contracted for the first time in 2018, the feature phone market has continued to grow over the last three years, the report said. Earlier in March, a Counterpoint Research report estimated that in 2019, a little more than 400 million feature phones would be sold globally. Further, feature phone shipments are expected to cross one billion units by 2021. Brokerage firm CLSA’s telecom sector outlook for February 2019 noted that Jio would lead the subscriber market share in the current year. In its India Telecom report, CLSA said mobile subscribers in February increased by two million to 1,184 million, with Reliance Jio adding 80 lakh new subscribers. Jio now has a customer base of 306 million in the country.
