Seems, Indian mobile handset market is going opposite to the global trend of slowdown. If reports are to be believed, Indian handset market has grown by 6 percent in the first quarter of 2012, while on the global front, the handset sale has seen a drop of nearly 2 percent.  

According to a recent report released by Gartner, the Indian smartphone market grew by 17 percent and the feature phones are still dominating the 226 million Indian handset industry. However, according to Indian retailers, the country witnessed a slight slowdown due to price hike backed by weak rupee in the last few months. 

It is worth noticing, this is the first time since 2009 when there is a decline in world wide mobile phones sales. 

As far as the handset makers are concerned, the Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia led the overall market in India while Samsung grabbed the Numero Uno position in the fast growing smartphone segment. Other smartphone makers including RIM, HTC, Motorola are trailing Nokia and Samsung. 

As per a latest report, world's second-largest cellphone maker by revenue, Samsung is targeting to increase its sales to 18-19 million units, taking its smartphone market share to 60 percent in India by year end.