In 2020, the Indian smartphone industry suffered a 1.7% drop in shipments due to the global pandemic, but the results of 2021 have shown that the industry has bounced back despite the previous setbacks.
The International Data Corporation has reported that India shipped 161 million smartphones in the year 2021, up by 7% year over year. Online channels dominated the market with 81 million units in sales and registered a growth of 13% YoY. This was driven by heavy marketing and initiatives like multiple sales festivals, attractive financing schemes, cashback & exchange offers, and trade-in programs.
Top 5 phone companies in India by shipment volume 2021
Xiaomi kept the number one position for four consecutive years with 40.4 million units shipped in 2021. Though declining by 1.5% YoY in 2021, it still commanded a 25.1% market share. Xiaomi’s sub-brand POCO emerged as the fastest growing online brand amongst the top five with 51% YoY growth. The entry-level models including the Redmi 9A, Redmi 9 Power, and the vanilla Redmi 9 were the major volume drivers for the company in 2021.
Samsung came in second shipping 28 million units through the year and commanding 17.4% of the market share. The brand led the 5G segment with a 21% share, driven by the Galaxy A22, M32, and M42. However, its overall shipments declined by 6% in 2021 due to supply constraints for the Galaxy A series in the low to mid-price segment and foldables in the premium segment.
Vivo managed the third position with 25.1 million total shippings and enjoyed 15.6% market share. It continued to lead the offline channels with 28% share, however, it faced supply constraints as well leading to a 6.1% YoY decrease in shipments in 2021.
Coming in fourth we have Realme with the highest YoY growth of 26%. It drove 24.2 million shipments and commanded a 15% market share in 2021. The brand also rose to the second position in the 4th quarter of 2021 with 19% market share, surpassing Samsung. The main reason for this rapid growth despite supply constraints can be credited to their UNISOC-based shipments, which reached 60% of its total shipments in 2021.
In the fifth position, we have OPPO which managed to ship 18 million units in 2021 and enjoyed a healthy growth of 8%. OPPO has shown a larger focus on higher average selling price devices like the Reno 6 series in 2021, which clearly indicates that the brand is targeting the premium-midrange segment in the Indian market.
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