With the recent explosive growth in mobile data consumption all thanks to Reliance Jio, it is no surprise that the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco is now set for a no.1 spot on the 4G data card vendors list. The telco has now surpassed Huawei to be the leading seller with highest market share and units shipped in 2016-2017.
According to Shipra Sinha, Lead Analyst of Industry Intelligence and Channels Research Practices from CyberMedia Research, “MiFi devices led the growth of LTE/4G technology in the second half. LTE-based MiFi devices jumped sequentially by 333 percent in the same period,”.
Counting the numbers, Reliance Jio share grew from 12 percent to a staggering 77 percent in the second half on the back of free services and cheap MiFi data cards. In contrast, Huawei sales dropped by 36% and share decreased to 10% from 33%.
Amongst data cards, 4G data cards saw 228% growth to 3.3 million in the second half. This led to LTE/4G becoming the most favorable technology in data cards market. On the other hand 3G shipments shrunk to 67%.
“MiFi devices are expected to show a further rise in the future. Inbuilt battery with anywhere, anytime data connectivity because of the various affordable data plans in MiFi devices are the key features contributing to its growth,” the analyst said.
An explosive growth in unit shipments was seen in 2017. 3.6 million shipments were recorded in the second half of the financial year 2016-2017, a jump of 107% compared to the first half. From these shipments, “MiFi devices led the growth of LTE/4G technology in the second half. LTE-based MiFi devices jumped sequentially by 333 percent in the same period,” Sinha added.
