Phablets, a term used by the technology journalists to describe the large-screen phones that started appearing after Samsung launched Galaxy Note, was recently added to online dictionary maintained by Oxford University Press.

Compared to Q1, 2013, the number of smartphones shipped in India registered a 50% growth in the second quarter of this year, IDC said in a statement.

"As the largest feature phone market in Asia Pacific region and second largest for smartphones, India recorded a 21% growth YoY and a modest 4% growth quarter over quarter for total mobile phones," said an IDC spokesperson.

"The growth in the India smartphone market is driven by consistent performance by local vendors, who accounted for more than half of the total smartphone market in Q2, 2013. These vendors have been scaling up operations, owing to rising migration of the user base from feature phones to smartphones," said Manasi Yadav, senior market analyst with IDC India.

Samsung leads the list of biggest smartphone vendors in India with a market share of 26%.

Micromax is second with 22% share, while Karbonn is third with 13% share.

Nokia and Sony each have 5% market share, while other companies account for 29% of smartphones shipped in India.

"Samsung maintained its leadership spot in Q2, 2013, with the newly launched Samsung Galaxy Star bringing in huge volumes at the low end," noted IDC.