In terms of annual sales, the India smartphone market is 8 times smaller than China's. India is lagging a long way behind its giant neighbor. Low ARPUs, low subsidies, low postpaid penetration and low 3G uptake are among some of the main causes of India's disappointing performance. But there are emerging signs that India is starting to close the gap. A wave of cheap Android models from popular Asian brands, like Samsung and Spice, is hitting store shelves, making smartphones more affordable to mass-market users. And more dual-SIM models, from Micromax and others, are arriving by the week (dual-SIM is popular in India).

We forecast smartphone sales to grow +77% in India in 2012, slightly ahead of China's +71% growth rate. More detail can be found in this published report -- available to download by clients of our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service -- which forecasts smartphone sales for 88 countries worldwide, including 17 countries in Asia Pacific, from 2007 to 2017.