2014 was quite a year for handset companies, with the sector witnessing the entry of several new players, big acquisitions and new business models like online-only handset sales, weekly flash sales and invite-only sales. Here's a look at some of the trends we noticed in the handset segment in 2014: 1. Online-only sales make their mark Motorola re-entered the India market by partnering exclusively with Flipkart to sell Moto G in February this year, followed by other devices like Moto E and Moto X. This partnership seemed to have worked, since Motorola claimed to have sold more than one million phones in five months, to become one of the top five handset makers in the country. This was later replicated by other handset makers like Samsung, Micromax, Karbonn, LG and Lenovo with Flipkart & other e-commerce players, much to the displeasure of offline retailers. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi also entered India in July this year and started selling its devices through weekly flash sales on Flipkart while another Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus started retailing on Amazon India through an invite-only system. Sudhin Mathur, Director (Smartphones), Lenovo India told Medianama that E-commerce platforms allows them to launch its products across the country on Day 1, which is not possible through offline retail, particularly in tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 towns, since it takes time for a product to physically reach out to a retail outlet. He also added that e-commerce platforms allow users to take an instant decision by actually comparing products based on what’s being offered at what prices, unlike in an retail outlet…
