India to overtake the U.S. to become world's second largest smartphone market

China, India and the U.S. are the three big countries driving smartphone growth worldwide. Buoyed by growing sales, India will overtake the U.S. to become world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017, says a report.

According to international research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales are forecast to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017.

“India will soon overtake the U.S. to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017 behind China, selling an impressive 174 million units,” the report said.

“We forecast global smartphone sales will grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion in 2017,” said Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics in a statement.

India is fast becoming the next major growth wave. “India’s growth is being driven by low smartphone penetration, expanding retail availability of devices, wealthier middle-class consumers, and aggressive promotions from local smartphone brands like Micromax,” added Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics.

According to the report, 118 million smartphones will be sold in India this year.Nearly 458 million smartphones will be sold in China in 2015, rising steadily to 505 million in 2017.

About 164 million smartphones will be sold in the U.S. in 2015, climbing marginally to 169 million in 2017. “No serious global hardware or software player can afford to ignore the huge Indian smartphone market today,” the report concluded.