Indonesia's smartphone market declined in the first quarter for the first time since the device category was introduced to the market, according to Counterpoint Research estimates.
Smartphone sales declined 7% year-on-year during the quarter, compared to an overall mobile phone market decline of 18%, the analyst firm said.
Counterpoint Research director Tom Kang attributed the decline to domestic brands clearing built-up inventory, slightly weaker consumer demand and the impact of new rules requiring at least some components of smartphones sold in the country to be sourced domestically.
“However, we see this as a temporary blip in the Indonesia’s smartphone growth story as the market is undergoing correction and brands are aligning to regulatory framework,” he said.
“Thus the Indonesia market is estimated to bounce back during the ongoing holiday quarter.”
In bright news for the local smartphone market, three in five handsets shipped during the quarter were smartphones. Samsung reclaimed its place as the top vendor in the overall handset market with a market share of 19% - and 27% for the smartphone segment.
Local vendor Evercross was bumped down to second place with a 14% overall share and 13% smartphone share.
Microsoft notably took third place on account of feature phone sales rather than smartphone sales - its mobile phone market share was 12%, but its smartphone shipments declined sequentially.
More than 1 million LTE-enabled smartphones were shipped in the market during Q3 for the second successive quarter.