Research firm IDC has released its market data showing the performance of the Indian smartphone market in the first quarter of 2020. The data is coming with some positives at a time the global smartphone market is experiencing a downturn.
India recorded positive growth in the first quarter of 2020 with an estimated overall shipment of 32.4 million. This translates to a growth of 1.5% YoY as against the 20.3% and 16.0% Year-on-Year decline recorded by the Chinese and US markets respectively.
Some positives to take out is the increase in sales via online channels which saw a growth of 9.0% YoY in Q1 2020. Online sales recorded a market share of 43.1%. On the other hand, offline channel shipments declined by 3.5% YoY. Further, the feature phone market in India also saw a decline of 29.4%, with an estimated 22.8 million units shipment in Q1 2020.
In terms of ranking, Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi maintained its lead of the market with an estimated 1Q 2020 shipment volume of 10.1 million units, achieving a growth of 3.4% YoY. Xiaomi’s most popular devices included the Redmi Note 8 series models.
Vivo came in strongly in second place, registering a growth of 63.3% YoY. This was largely due to the success of their affordable Y series and S1/Pro series smartphones. Korean tech giant and global market leader Samsung suffered a decline of 28.4% YoY in Q1 2020, recording their lowest ever shipment numbers in the past 5 years. Pricing issues with the Galaxy M series and Galaxy A series of smartphones caused a low consumer interest and high channel inventory.
Realme leapt ahead of OPPO to emerge as the fourth largest brand in terms of shipment volume in the quarter. The OPPO sub-brand is said to have shipped 4.3 million units. Realme’s top-selling models for the quarter include the Realme 5i, 5s, C2/C3, and the Realme 6.
BBK subsidiary OPPO completes the top 5 with a 41% YoY growth. However, the brand’s latest Reno3 and F15 smartphones were no match for competing models which offered better pricing and features.
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