India stands out as a key tech market and a central hub for tech companies, catering not just to sales but also production. Companies like Apple and Xiaomi manufacture their products within the country. The government is proactively enhancing its attractiveness for investments, offering diverse incentive packages. As of January 31, 2024, India has decreased the import duty on smartphone components from 15% to 10%, showcasing its commitment to fostering a favorable business environment. Here are the details…

India’s 10% Import Duty Sparks Surge in Smartphone Production

India has decreased the import duty on smartphone components from 15% to 10%, intending to boost smartphone manufacturing and reduce prices. As a result, companies manufacturing in India will now pay lower taxes on items like camera lenses, back covers, plastic and metal mechanical parts, GSM antennas, and other components imported from other countries.

This decision brought joy to major manufacturers, including Apple. While a drop from 15% to 10% may not appear substantial initially, it’s crucial to acknowledge that we’re dealing with operations valued in billions of dollars. The cost reduction could motivate current manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, and OnePlus to boost their investments and inspire new ones to initiate production in India.

“Duty cuts on import of mobile phone parts would help big global manufacturers to set up large scale mobile assembly lines in India, and substantially increase exports of mobile phones,” said Rajat Mohan, a director at tax consultancy firm MOORE Singhi.

In 2022, Apple started making iPhones and AirPods at its factory in India, with a hefty $1 billion investment. Xiaomi, since 2014, runs five Indian factories, producing smartphones like Redmi, Mi, and POCO. Samsung, having started production in India back in 2007, operates six factories, making phones under brands like Galaxy, M, and A. This decision seems to be very beneficial for all these brands and many more.

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After years, the Indian smartphone market is undergoing a significant transformation. A lot has changed over the last few quarters.

The brand that used to rule the market is no longer at the top. The average selling price has risen due to consumers’ preference for more expensive devices.

Although the top five brands are the same as before, their order has changed. 

Let’s go through the current status of the Indian smartphone market, as per the latest IDC report.

New Market Leader

According to IDC’s Q2 2023 report on the Indian smartphone market, Vivo is currently the leading brand in the country with a 16% market share. Samsung follows closely behind with a 15.7% market share.

Xiaomi, which had been in charge of the market for years, held this position prior to a year ago. But right now, the company is fifth in the market with 11% market share.

Realme and Oppo are in the third and fourth spots, respectively. The former has a 12.6% market share, while the latter has the same share as Xiaomi.

OnePlus, Apple, Poco, Tecno, and Infinix make up the top 10. Poco registered the highest YoY growth of 76.5% YoY, piggybacking on its entry-level C series phones. Whereas, Vivo’s success is attributed to the V series handsets.

Decline in Shipments

In the first half of 2023, the Indian smartphone market shrank to 64 million units. Shipments fell 10% year on year.

Similarly, shipments fell 3% year on year to 34 million units in Q2 2023. However, the market increased by 10% over the previous quarter.

The most affected brand was Xiaomi, with a whopping 39.4% drop compared to last year, followed by Realme with a 29.8% decline. Oppo and Samsung also registered declines of 7.4% and 6.2%, respectively.

Xiaomi and Realme faced difficulties as online shipments dropped by 15% YoY. 

Despite vendors and channels focusing on inventory clearance, shipments fell. They tried by providing discounts, special schemes, and price drops.

However, what’s interesting is that offline shipments grew by 11% in India and hit a 54% market share. 

Shift towards Premium

The IDC data shows that the cheaper phones struggled while the premium ones prospered in India over the past few months. The average selling price (ASP) reached $241 in the second quarter of 2023. This marks a 13% increase in the ASP as compared to last year. 

Consequently, it’s not surprising to see that the market share of the cheaper, sub-$200 smartphones went down to 65% from 70% YoY. While the premium category ($600+) registered the highest growth of 75% YoY. Overall, the premium smartphone segment increased its market share in India by 9%.

When you look at the mid-range segment, which consists of phones between $200 and $400, it didn’t see any growth from its 22% market share last year. This might come as a surprise given how we’ve seen many smartphones from different brands in this segment. 

However, as mentioned above, the more expensive category, namely the upper mid-range segment ($400-$600), saw a significant growth of 34%, taking its market share to 5%.

When you look at the brands that did well, it’s no surprise that the premium ones like Apple and OnePlus saw significant growth in the first half of 2023. Apple had the highest ASP of $929 and grew by 61.1% YoY. OnePlus registered the same amount of growth as Apple. It’s worth adding that despite the solid growth, OnePlus’ ASP fell by 14% YoY to $346. 

IDC Research Manager Upasana Joshi notes affordable financing options as the driving factor behind consumers’ preference for premium smartphones.

5G and Beyond

Looking at the data about 5G phones, India saw around 17 million 5G smartphones in Q2 2023 with an ASP of $366. Though the number sounds huge, the 5G market actually witnessed a decline of 3% over last year.

Brands like Samsung, Vivo, and OnePlus held the 5G segment together with a 54% market share. But when it comes to the highest-shipped 5G model, the Apple iPhone 13 took the lead, followed by the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite.

The 5G segment could see a significant push in the coming months, with brands planning to launch affordable 5G devices in H2 2023. The upcoming festive season could also turn out to be a driving factor for more shipments with discounts, pre-order offers, and upgrade bonuses.

As you can imagine, the above data indicates that the Indian smartphone market might actually shrink in 2023. For the market to grow in 2023, it needs strong double-digit growth in the next few months. But Navkendar Singh, Associate Vice President of IDC, thinks it is unlikely right now.

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The smartphone market in India has apparently taken a hit in the first quarter of this year. The country has seen a noticeable fall in shipments over the same period year on year, so here are all the details.

This news arrives from the latest report from Canalys. The report claims that the Indian smartphone shipments have dropped by a sizeable 20 percent year on year in Q1 2023. Interestingly, this decline follows after the modest 6 percent drop back in the fourth and final quarter of last year. The report adds that the Indian smartphone market has seen the hit due to issues with market demand and stock build up has also affected various sales channels.

But despite the decline, the South Korean tech giant, Samsung, managed to retain its market leader with a notable 21 percent market share by shipping around 6.3 million units in Q1 2023. On the other hand, Oppo and Vivo took the second and third spots respectively, with both companies accounting for around 18 percent market share. Xiaomi came in fourth with a 16 percent market share, while Realme came fifth with a 9 percent market share.

The Canalys report noted that consumers in India are more comfortable with spending more on premium smartphone models. This means that brands would have to adapt and make its devices be great value for money. According to Sanyam Chaurasia, Analyst at Canalys, “India’s market struggles but vendors remain optimistic. They invest in retail, manufacturing, local sourcing, and R&D to align with the government and consumers. They aim for long term market success.”

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(Via)

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Smartphones that were Made in India saw a sizeable rise in shipments back in the second quarter of this year. However, in the third quarter, it seems that these devices did not see such a great performance in the local market.

The news arrives from a Counterpoint Research report. The known analytics based firm found that smartphones under the ‘Made in India” category saw an overall decline of 8 percent year on year in Q3 2022. During this period, the Indian smartphone market shipped over 52 million Made in India handset units. However, this marked a noticeable fall in sales, which the report believes is likely due to fall in consumer demand.

This decline in sales is also likely linked to the uncertain geopolitics that could be the primary factor. According to Senior Research Analyst Prachir Singh, “The Made in India smartphone shipments declined in Q3 2022 as compared to Q3 2021. Two major forces impacted the growth of such smartphone shipments. First, the decline in consumer demand, especially in the entry level segment, due to the negative macroeconomic indicators. Second, the high channel inventory at the start of the quarter also impacted the manufacturing during the quarter.”

Despite this, the country’s smartphone manufacturing sector is still seeing expansion with almost 63 percent of shipments arriving from in house producers and just 37 percent from third party sources. BYD and Lava were two of the fastest growing brands in terms of total smartphone shipments. The researched further added that “Overall, the manufacturing trend is witnessing an upward trajectory with multiple partnerships happening in recent months, like the ones between Tata Group and Wistron and between Foxconn and Vedanta.” So this decline might not be permanent.

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(Source)

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The Indian smartphone market witnessed yet another quarter of decline in Q3 2022, reports IDC. The number of shipments reduced by 10% YoY. Brands managed to ship 43 million units from July to September.

This was the lowest third-quarter shipment since 2019. Weakening demand and increasing device prices affected sales despite an earlier onset of the Diwali festive season offers and deals.

Talking about brands, Xiaomi managed to cling to the first position. Samsung regained the second slot as Realme dropped to fourth. Vivo and Oppo rounded off the top five with third and fifth places, respectively.

All the aforementioned companies, except Oppo, saw a drop in shipments. Oppo even had a lead in the offline segment.

More than 70% of Xiaomi’s shipments came from the online channel. Vivo saw its highest-ever online shipments of 35%.

Samsung led the 5G category with a 27% share, while Vivo was second with a 15% share. Around 53% of Samsung’s portfolio was 5G-enabled.

Overall, companies shipped 16 million 5G smartphones in Q3. It accounted for 36% of total shipments. The ASP of 5G smartphones stood at $393.

Smartphones powered by MediaTek led the market with a 47% share. Whereas, the market shares of Qualcomm and UNISOC were at 25% and 15%, respectively.

The premium segment ($500+) registered a growth of 64% YoY with an 8% market share. Apple led this category with a 63% share, followed by Samsung and OnePlus at 22% and 9%, respectively.

The sub-$300 segment, which is known for driving sales in India, declined by 15% YoY. Hence, the performance of the entire market dwindled.

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Oppo is one of the largest smartphone makers in the global market. Now, a new report has revealed that the company is also the fast growing brand in the Indian market and even ranks among the top 5 vendors list in the region.

In an official press release, the Chinese company announced that it was the fastest growing smartphone brand in the region with a 14 percent year on year growth in the third quarter of this year. During this period, the OEM shipped over 7 million smartphone units. Oppo claimed that some of its newest handset lineups helped boost sales thanks to their ‘best in class’ technology. The company even shared the example of the Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro models, which achieved a target of 124 percent and 105 percent respectively.

Apart from the Reno phones, the company’s F series of smartphones were also quite popular as well. This includes the F21 Pro, which helped clocked 68 percent growth in 2022. Similarly, the new K models also saw great sales as well, with the K10 5G seeing robust sales during this period. As per Damyant Singh Khanoria, Chief Marketing Officer of OPPO India, “

“In keeping with our brand proposition of Inspiration Ahead, we at OPPO are proud innovators in smartphone technologies. We have expanded our connection with our customers through a product ecosystem that makes their life convenient. Our YoY steady growth is a testament of our consumers love for what OPPO brings to its products. We will continue to push the boundaries in technology and innovation to build cutting-edge devices for the Indian market.”

Oppo further added that its impressive growth was also made possible thanks to its manufacturing site in Greater Noida. This plant was a part of its “Make in India” initiative, which also contributed to the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” mission.

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The mid-range smartphone category in India is going through a growth phase. This segment in the country covers the phones selling in the range of ₹20,000-₹45,000. Therefore, earlier this week, Samsung announced its plans to conquer almost half of the mid-range smartphone market in the region.

A few days back, Samsung took wraps off five new Galaxy A series models for India. At the launch event in Bengaluru, Aditya Babbar, Senior Director and Marketing Head for Samsung India, revealed to the Deccan Herald (via SamMobile) that the South Korean electronics is hoping to capture 40% of the mid-range smartphone segment (₹20,000-₹45,000) in the country with the help of its new handsets.

According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung’s market share in India’s mid-range smartphone category stood at 28% in 2021. The company registered a growth of 87% YoY in this segment.

Since India is a price-sensitive market, brands have been pushing various financing options to attract consumers. Samsung introduced its own lending platform dubbed ‘Samsung Finance Plus’ three years ago. It is currently available in over 50,000 stores across India. Babbar disclosed that over 50% of this platform’s users are new to credit as they have never availed loans in their life.

The average selling price of smartphones in India increased in 2021 due to supply issues. At the same time, mid-range phones now offer more as well as diversified features targeting multiple audiences. This has resulted in the growth trajectory for the mid-range smartphone category in the region, and hence, every OEM wants a pie of it.

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Last week, we witnessed the launch of new models in one of the best-selling budget smartphone series worldwide. Further, we learned that the global smartphone market grew for the first time in four years. Then, out of nowhere, two brands released shameless iPhone clones. At the same time, another company launched a Galaxy S21 Ultra-lookalike phone. All this and more happened in the last few days. Let’s take a look at them one by one in no particular order.

Before proceeding, we would like to let you know that the top stories listed here are based on our opinion. As your choices may vary, we would like to know your picks in the comment section below.

Top Stories from Last Week

New Redmi Note 11 series for international markets

After debuting the Redmi Note 11 lineup in China in November, Xiaomi finally brought the family to international on January 26. However, the series for global markets include totally different devices, namely Redmi Note 11, Redmi Note 11S, Redmi Note 11 Pro, and Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G.

Out of these four, the Redmi Note 11S offers the best value for its asking price. Although it looks and has the same display as the vanilla model, its specs are more comparable to the Pros.

The entire series comes with features like a high-refresh display, dual stereo speakers, IR blaster, MUI 13, a 5,000mAh battery, and more. You can learn more about them by visiting this link.

Smartphone market observed multiple records

The global smartphone market grew for the first time in 2021 since 2017. Counterpoint Research revealed that the shipments reached 1.39 billion units by growing 4% YoY.

The Indian smartphone, in particular, grew 12%YoY last year by registering 162 million units in shipment. On the other hand, the Chinese market shipped 333 million units and incremented by only 1%.

Finally, pivoting to the budget segment at the right time (ahead of LG’s demise), OnePlus saw an insane 524% YoY growth in the US in Q4 2021.

iPhone clones from Gionee and Blackview

Gionee 13 Pro went official last week with an uncanny iPhone 13 resemblance and HarmonyOS. However, it has entry-level specs like an HD+ display (LCD) and a UNISOC T310 chipset. For just  ¥529 (483), it doesn’t sound like a bad deal after all.

At around the same time, Blackview A95 also got announced with an iPhone 13 Pro-like design. Its main highlights other than design include a MediaTek Helio P70 SoC, 6.5-inch HD+ display (LCD), and a 4,380mAh battery.

Face ID now works with a mask 

After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, iPhones can be finally unlocked with masks on. However, this feature is currently only available in the beta channel. Also, it requires iPhone 12 or newer models.

Additionally, Apple is working on a new feature that will turn iPhones into POS machines. This feature will be reportedly useful for micro-merchants.

MediaTek Kompanio 1380 is a new chip for Chromebooks

MediaTek announced a new SoC called Komapnio 1380 for premium Chromebooks on January 26. This 6m chip arrives with an octa-core CPU consisting of four ARM Cortex-A78 cores clocked at up to 3GHz and a five-core ARM Mali-G57 GPU.

It supports up to 4K 60Hz display, AV1 decoding, WiFi 6//6E, and Bluetooth 5. The chipset will make its global debut inside the Acer Chromebook Spin 513, which is scheduled to hit the shelves in June.

HUAWEI P50 Pocket reaches global markets alongside HUAWEI P50 Pro

On January 26, Huawei announced the arrival of HUAWEI P50 Pro and HUAWEI P50 Pocket to multiple international markets like Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe, and South America.

The 4G-only premium handsets from the once world’s largest smartphone brand sport the same set of features as the variant sold in China, except for software. The global editions of these devices run EMUI 12 without GMS (Google Mobile Services) instead of HarmonyOS.

Despite their shortcomings in terms of software, Huawei is charging a whopping €1,199 for the HUAWEI P50 Pro (8GB + 256GB) and €1,299 for the HUAWEI P50 Pocket (8GB + 256GB). There’s also a Premium Edition of the latter phone with a unique design and 12GB + 512GB memory configuration for €1,599.

JioPhone 5G could be Jio’s first 5G smartphone

A report on January 25 disclosed that the Indian carrier Jio is working on its first 5G smartphone called JioPhone 5G. This device is expected to go official in June with much better specs than the poorly received JioPhone Next.

The handset is said to come with a 6.5-inch HD+ display (HD+), 13MP (wide) + 2MP (macro) dual camera setup, 8MP selfie camera, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 SoC, 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, 5,000mAh battery, and 18W fast charging.

OnePlus phones might run H₂OOS in the near future

On January 27, popular Indian tech influencer Mukul Sharma tweeted that the unified operating system of OPPO and OnePlus could be called H₂OOS. Since his claim is based on a trademark filing by OnePlus, he could be wrong.

Anyway, the H₂OOS (Water OS) trademark is interesting as it combines the names of OxygenOS (O₂) and the discontinued HydrogenOS (H₂OS). The name has no mention of ColorOS, which the software will be actually based on.

Furthermore, a couple of days before this tweet, a tipster stated that the OnePlus 10 Ultra could debut in H2 2022 as the brand’s first superphone or ultra-premium smartphone. The device is said to house OPPO’s MariSilicon NPU.

HONOR to showcase new products at MWC 2022

HONOR has confirmed to attend MWC 2022. The company has scheduled a launch conference for February 28. The event will kickstart at 1 PM CET.

The brand is teasing the launch of the new Magic series with a quote ‘The Power of Magic’. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the upcoming lineup of handsets.

Micromax IN Note 2 and vivo Y75 5G  debut in India

Micromax launched the IN Note 2 on January 25 as the successor of IN Note 1 for ₹13,490 (4GB + 64GB). The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra-lookalike phone arrives with a 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, MediaTek Helio G95 chipset, 48MP (wide) + 5MP (ultra-wide) + 2MP (macro) + 2MP (depth) quad-camera setup, 16MP selfie camera, side-mounte fingerprint sensor, Android 11, 5,000mAh battery, and 30W fast charging.

Chinese handset maker vivo debuted a new budget 5G smartphone called vivo Y75 5G in India on January 27. For ₹21,990 (8GB  +128GB), the phone offers a 6.58-inch FHD+ display (LCD), MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC, 50MP (wide) + 2MP (macro) + 2MP (depth) triple camera setup, 16MP selfie camera, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Android 12, 5,000mAh battery, and 18W fast charging.

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Chinese tech brand realme has been setting new records since its inception. It is currently the fastest-growing smartphone brand with 100 million units in shipments in just 37 months. According to a new report, the company recently took over the mantle of the second-largest smartphone brand in India.

Counterpoint Research says that realme was the second-largest smartphone in India in the month of October 2021. The company’s shipments accounted for 18% of the market share.

The only firm ahead of it was Xiaomi, which comprises brands like Redmi and POCO, with a 20% share. Since POCO’s shipments stood at only 2.7%, the majority of the number should have come from the Redmi brand. Hence, if we pit realme against Redmi, the former should have been the largest of the two in October.

Further, the research firm says that realme was the largest smartphone brand on Flipkart with a 52% market share in the same period. This is not surprising as the brand’s primary official online channels are Flipkart and its own website. Whereas, in the overall online smartphone market, it had a 27% market share.

Talking about the remaining top 5 brands during the aforementioned period, Samsung, vivo, and OPPO came third, fourth, and fifth respectively. They had a market share of 16%, 13%, and 10% individually.

On reaching a new milestone, Madhav Sheth, President of realme International Business Group, issued a statement that his brand is aiming to reach the no. 1 position in India in 2022. 

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A new report has just revealed that the smartphone market in India is expected to see modest annual growth this year. In 2021, the market is expected to see only single digit rise.

According to IDC, the smartphone market in India saw a 12 percent year on year decline in the third quarter of this year. During this quarter, only 48 million units were shipped, despite seeing four consecutive quarters of growth. Although, this decline can be attributed to factors like the ongoing component shortages along with an unusually high third quarter performance last year. But comparing Q3 2021 to Q3 2019, we can see that the market saw a 3 percent growth as various channels also stocked up for the festive season despite the semiconductor shortage.

As per IDC Research Director Navkendar Singh, “The first nine months of the year (Jan-Sep’21) already shipped 120 million units, with 1H21 clocking 42% YoY growth. Due to supply challenges, 4Q21 is expected to see a decline, resulting in annual shipments below 160 million in 2021. The first half of 2022 will remain challenging, with some easing out expected in the latter half of 2022. Vendors/channels will keep an eye on the over stocking situation in case demand stays limited due to the price hikes by the suppliers and vendors.”

The report further added that online channels saw a record high 52 percent share in overall smartphone sales, especially during the online promotional offers from companies like Amazon and Flipkart. This continued on till Diwali, which is one of the major festivals in the country. Meanwhile, offline channels declined by 18 percent YoY, with IDC expecting online channels to overtake offline shipments in 2021. As of right now, India is the third largest 5G smartphone market due to a growing dependency on smartphones triggered by the remote work and education has lead to a rise in demand for high quality hardware.

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Almost all sectors are affected by the global semiconductor shortage. At the same time, the smartphone market is also facing a shortage of components. Despite the struggles, smartphone sale in India is estimated to reach a new peak during the 2021 festive season.

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, smartphone sales in India during the 2021 festive season will hit a whopping $7.6 billion. The sales began in the first week of October and they are expected to last until Diwali (November 4).

It was Amazon and Flipkart, who kicked off this year’s festive season sale (as always) with their Great Indian Festival and Big Billion Days respectively.

High consumer demand will be the key driving factor of sales this year. It will be backed up by high pent-up demand and aggressive promotions in the mid and premium categories.

However, due to the shortage of components, OEMs have been forced to hike the price of several models. As a result, sales in the budget segment will be impacted.

Therefore, brands are offering promotions on mid-range and premium models to lure in customers, just like what Canalys pointed out recently. For instance, Xiaomi is trying its best to make a name in the premium category by providing attractive deals on the Mi 11 series of devices.

Finally, due to an increase in sales of mid-to-high tier (>$200) models, the overall ASP of smartphones in India during the 2021 festive season is forecasted to grow at 14% YoY. However, the sales growth will only increment by 1% YoY.

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Canalys has released its report on India Smartphone Market for Q3 2021. According to the research firm, the shipments dropped by 5% YoY. However, Xiaomi continued to dominate the market. At the same time, the Chinese tech giant tried to increase its share in the premium segment.

Canalys says that vaccination played a key role in the increase of smartphone demand in India in the third quarter of 2021. But unfortunately, the shipments fell short of 5% compared to last year due to the shortage of components.

As the low-end models were in short supply, brands were forced to offer promotions on high-end models to lure in customers. Xiaomi pushed its Mi 11 series heavily to increase its share in the premium smartphone category in India. Apple also offered attractive deals on the iPhone 12 series ahead of the iPhone 13 series launch.

On the other hand, realme took a different approach. It focused more on affordable 5G handsets, and therefore, managed to ship around 1 million units of realme 8 5G. A whopping 70% of the brand’s shipment occurred online. Lastly, Transsion also tried to scale up its sales in the country.

Talking about rankings in terms of shipments, Xiaomi came first with a 24% market share (11.2 million units), followed by Samsung with a 19% share (9.1 million units). Then, vivo acquired third position with a 17% of the market (8.1 million units). It was closely followed by relame with a 16% market share (7.5 million units) and OPPO with a 13% share (6.2 million units).

As far as the whole market is concerned, the demand is said to persist during the upcoming Diwali festive season, in addition to the shortage of supplies. We will have to wait and see how the brands will face the situation.

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The latest India Handset Quarterly Outlook by Counterpoint Research shows some impressive numbers for the market. The results point to an overall strong outlook for the Indian market, with 5G, feature phones conversion to smartphones, and affordability driving the massive growth.

The Indian smartphone market is in a resurgent mood after a slight dip in 2020, occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. In the first half of the year, overall smartphone shipments rose to a record 100 million units, while the market share of 5G smartphones grew from 3% in 2020 to 19% by mid-2021. This tremendous growth has led Counterpoint Research to forecast that the market will get to the 173 million units mark by the year’s end.

India with a population of 1.39 billion, is a huge trove of untapped potentials. The 320 million feature phone market in the subcontinent is also up for grabs, as the $75 Jio Phone Next could be a game-changer to drive the migration from feature phone to smartphone by users. As India continues to expand its 5G infrastructure, the demand for affordable 5G smartphones has also been on the increase. Average prices of 5G phones have seen a 40% decline, and the current price of the cheapest 5G smartphone is INR 15,000 ($200). A recent survey also indicated that about 21% of consumers preferred 5G.

The Indian smartphone market has enjoyed a steady growth in the last five years, and the outlook for the next five years remains very bright. After China, the Indian smartphone market is the largest in the world.

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India was heavily affected by the COVID-19 second wave in Q2 2021. Though the demand for smartphones got affected, companies still managed to ship more units compared to last year same time. That’s because the country was going through a complete lockdown in Q2 2020.

According to Canalys, the India Smartphone Market dropped 13% between Q1 and Q2 2021. The market managed to ship 32.4 million units in the second quarter of this year.

As usual, Xiaomi dominated the chart with 9.5 million units in shipments and a 29% market share. It was followed by Samsung with 5.5 million units and a 17% market share. Further, vivo also had a 17% market share like the South Korean tech giant but with 5.4 million units in shipments. 

The fourth position was acquired by realme, while OPPO came fifth. The former shipped 4.9 million units, whereas the latter shipped 3.8 million units. Their market share stood at 15% and 12% respectively.

As per Canalys Analyst Sanyam Chaurasia, the second COVID-19 wave in India was a wake-up call for OEMs to treat both online and offline presences equally. Brands like Xiaomi, which has a better online presence did a pretty good job despite the terrible situation. The same can be said for realme. The Redmi Note 10 series and realme narzo 30 series were some of the most-shipped models online.

That said, although the India Smartphone Market began to recover by the end of Q2, there won’t be a surge in pent-up demand in the second half of the year like in 2020. Lastly, the component shortage will not only increase the price of handsets but will also make brands practice regional deprioritization.

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The global coronavirus pandemic that has prevailed since early 2020 has affected sales projections in India’s smartphone market. The market has reportedly taken a dip, especially offline stores and outlets, as consumers continue to get their favorite brand products via numerous online outlets.

Presently, there is a lull in the rate at which smartphone brands open physical retail outlets, as most deployments have been stalled because of the negative growth outlook. Recent sales data show that the Indian smartphone market had experienced a general decline from its performance previously. Still, retail outlets with no online presence bore the brunt of the drop. This has warranted a downward review of the current growth forecasts, according to industry analysts.

A report by Counterpoint Research says the initial market share of offline sales has been downgraded to 55% due to the unimpressive numbers that have been recorded in the past two quarters. It is expected that the projections for the year will be reviewed further downwards, as the pandemic still bites hard on India. Other experts have given a similar outlook for the year.

There had been a gradual shift from the traditional offline sales model to e-commerce, but it seems this was further accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic that saw much of the world under a forced lockdown for much of 2020. However, the offline retail outlets remain an integral component of the marketing strategy of some established brands in India like Xiaomi, Vivo, and others who continue to expand their physical presence in India through retail outlets. While small and medium shops continue to grapple with survival in the present circumstances, several offline channels have closed shop. This is projected to result in the loss of an estimated 50,000 jobs.

We expect the sales outlook to improve as vaccine rollout improves and the infection curve starts flattening out.

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The smartphone shipments in India in the first quarter of this year saw a record growth of 23 percent year on year, reaching over 38 million units. This marks the highest first quarter shipments in the country but are expected to lower in the following quarter due to the resurgence of Coronavirus in the region.

According to a Counterpoint Research report, the record rise in shipments in the nation arrives as new product launches paired with promotions, new financial schemes, and pent up demand coming from last year. Research analyst Prachir Singh stated that “Continuing with its stellar run, India’s smartphone market registered a third consecutive quarter of record shipments in Q1 2021, riding on pent-up demand. Consumer confidence also increased due to the beginning of a vaccination drive in the country. But these numbers should be taken with caution as a second and more virulent wave of COVID-19 is currently on in the country and is likely to impact the coming quarters. The consumer demand will take a hit due to the ongoing COVID-19 wave and subsequent lockdowns.”

Furthermore, the report also added that the Chinese brands also held around 75 percent share in the first quarter of 2021. In the local market, Xiaomi led with a 26 percent market share followed by Samsung, Vivo, Realme, and Oppo. Xiaomi managed to hold the lead thanks to the expansion of its local manufacturing capacities with new EMS partners. Samsung also maintained a high number of new product launched in its Galaxy M series, Galaxy F series as well as the Galaxy S21 series as well.

The Indian mobile handset market also grew by 19 percent year on year in Q1 2021 due to the strong performance of both feature phones and smartphone segments. The feature phone market saw a growth of 14 percent year on year. Notably, OnePlus led the 5G smartphone market in the region, with a 33 percent market share while Samsung recorded the largest growth in the region at 52 percent year on year.

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Recently, market research firm Counterpoint came up with a 2020 Smartphone shipment report for India. It cited that over 150 million smartphones were shipped last year. Similar to that, IDC has come out with its own version and says that Online channels outpaced the entire market.

First off, the report says that for Q4 2020, i.e, from October – December, India recorded 45 million shipments with a 21% YoY growth. This, Although, is down from 54.3 million shipments in Q3, sets up the arena well for 2021. As the report says, 2020 began with brands suffering shutdowns, shortfall in Demand, and more.

However, after H2 2021, the need for electronic devices like Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops rose thanks to the increased due to online learning programs. Anyway, towards the end, Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, realme, OPPO shipped 12, 7.7, 7.6, 5.2, 5.1 million units in Q4 respectively. This makes Xiaomi retain the top spot with a whopping 27% market share

India Smartphone Market- Online Channel’s Dominance in 2020

That said, it’s worth noting that Samsung grew 35% YoY in Q4. If we take the overall Smartphone market for 2020, the report says that Online Channels(Online e-commerce) in India grew 12% YoY and grabbed 48% of Total share in 2020. Specifically, during Diwali sales, online segment held 51% whereas offline grew 5% YoY in Q4.

Xiaomi, who shipped 41 million devices overall and lead the Indian market with a 27% share, combined with POCO and ruled the online arena as well with a 39% share. Samsung, too gets a bite of its own with Galaxy-M & F devices. It grew 65% YoY online but failed to impress offline(28% decline). Overall, it shipped 29.7 million units and saw a 4% dip in 2020.

Other companies like Vivo, realme, OPPO shipped 26.7, 19.2, 16.5 million units overall respectively. As always, Vivo dethroned Samsung to dominate the offline market with a 30% share thanks to its Y-series devices. Although realme beat OPPO overall, it couldn’t grab the crown in online arena.

Finally, Transsion brands like Infinix, Tecno, Itel contributed to the growth as online share stood at 64%. Sadly, Apple is at the 7th spot despite showing a 93% YoY growth in 2020.

5G Smartphone Prospects in 2021

As for Processors, MediaTek surprisingly leads the chipset arena with a 43% share while Qualcomm sits at 40%. It’s a bit obvious that sub-$200 phones helped the Taiwanese giant grow more in 2020.

With 3 million shipments in 2020, 5G market will gain a rapid phase this year. Brands are expected to pull aggressive marketing campaigns and launch 5G devices at multiple price points although 5G adoption is nowhere near in India.

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Counterpoint Research has released its report on the Indian smartphone market for Q4 2020. According to it, the market only dropped by a mere 4% throughout 2020 despite the global pandemic. As a result, the total shipments exceeded 150 million units. Whereas, the market grew 19% YoY in the fourth quarter as Diwali was almost a month later in November, compared to 2019. Also, in spite of anti-China sentiments, Chinese companies accounted for a 75% market share in 2020.

Talking about brands, as per Counterpoint, Samsung was the largest smartphone brand in Q3 2020. But in Q4, Xiaomi managed to recapture the top position with 13% YoY growth. The company’s strong performers were unsurprisingly the Redmi 9 and Redmi Note 9 series.

That’s not all, the POCO brand itself shipped over 5 million units in the last quarter of 2020. Its bestsellers were none other than the POCO C3, POCO M2, and POCO M2 Pro.

Despite coming second in Q4, Samsung’s witnessed a 30% YoY growth. Because it went aggressive on online channels with various Galaxy A and Galaxy M series models at different price segments.

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Further, vivo came third and continued to be the top offline brand in 2020. However, its shipments declined by 13%. Then, in the fourth position, realme shipped over 20 million units for the first time in 2020. The brand grew 22% last year and therefore, it was the highest growing brand in 2020.

Lastly, OPPO’s shipments increased 11% YoY in 2020, however, the company’s growth was sort of flat in Q4. The OPPO A12 and OPPO A53 were its best-selling devices.

Talking about other brands, Apple crossed 1.5 million shipments in a single quarter for the first time in India. The American tech giant captured the sixth spot in Q4 with a 171% YoY growth and 93% YoY growth in 2020.

As far as OnePlus is concerned, it shipped more than 3 million units for the first time last year, thanks to the OnePlus Nord. Also, it grew a whopping 200% YoY in the fourth quarter.

Finally, Transsion brands (Infinix, itel, TECNO) observed their highest-ever shipments of 9 million units in Q4 2020. TECNO Spark 6 Air, itel Vision 1, and Infinix Smart 4 Plus models were their best-sellers. Also, itel was the largest feature phone brand in 2020 as a whole for the first time, in addition to the last quarter.

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After releasing the report on India Smartphone Market Q3 2020 in early last month, IDC is back again with another report for October 2020. The new report details the growth achieved by OEMs during the pre-Diwali festive season sales in the country. Unsurprisingly, the rankings remained the same with Xiaomi leading the market, followed by Samsung, realme, vivo, and OPPO respectively.

India Smartphone Market October 2020 Shipments

According to the new report by International Data Corporation (IDC), the Indian smartphone market recorded a whopping 42% YoY growth in October 2020 by shipping 21 million units. Above all, it happens to be the highest-ever October shipments and it is only second to the all-time high shipments of 23 million units that took place in September 2020.

Due to the pandemic and great offers, online channels grew 53% YoY and accounted for 51% market share. The offline channels also grew 33% YoY, especially in smaller towns and cities.

The $100-$200 price bracket, which is the hottest segment in India, grew by 60% YoY, and therefore, its market share increased to 58%. Redmi 9, Redmi Note 9, and vivo Y20 were some of the most-shipped handsets. Whereas, the premium segment ($500-$700) was led by iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and OnePlus 8, thanks to exceptional offers.

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India Smartphone Market October 2020 Sell-out Units

Taking about sell-out units (finale sale to consumers), a record 22 million units were sold in October 2020 in India, registering more than 38% YoY growth. Approximately 55% of the national demand came from the top 50 cities.

Top-tier cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata grew 50% YoY, and therefore, they accounted for 25% of the entire market. Emerging cities like Jaipur, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, and Coimbatore also grew by ~50% YoY bu the rest of the states (up-country markets) only witnessed an average of ~25% YoY growth due to economic factors.

Online channels accounted for 50% of entire sales by growing 23% YoY. In the top 5 metro cities, it had a 57% share. This happened despite delayed deliveries as supply constraints had impacted offline sales. As for brands, Xiaomi led in 34 of the top 50 cities in the online channel, whereas vivo topped in 44 of the top 50 major cities in the offline channel.

Further, the MOP (Market Operating Price) was $190 in October 2020 and 68% of total sales occurred in the sub-$200 price segment. Almost half of the sales of the $100-$200 price segment happened online, recording 93% YoY growth. Lastly, Xiaomi was the leading brand in the sub-$200 in 30 of the top 50 cities in India. 

Whereas, the mid-range segment ($200-$300) accounted for almost a fourth of the smartphones sold in the period. Samsung led this segment in 36 of the major 50 cities. On the other hand, the premium segment ($500+) accounted for only 5% of the total sales in the top 50 cities and less than 1% in the rest of the cities. Apple topped this price bracket in 49 of those top 50 cities. However, it is worth noting that this segment grew 16% YoY.

India Smartphone Market October 2020 5G Sales

Interestingly, half a million 5G handsets were sold in October 2020 and almost 80% of those sales happened in the top 10 cities of the country. Although the report does not mention the best-sellers, the only phone we could think of is the OnePlus Nord.

Because this device was the top-seller in its segment in Q3 2020 and there was not a single phone cheaper than it with 5G connectivity during the period. The only other 5G handsets were flagships.

And since sales in the premium segment were lower compared to budget and mid-range categories, OnePlus Nord is our strong contender for the best-selling 5G smartphone in India in October 2020. Whereas, the runner-ups could have been the OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 8 series, and the then newly launched Mi 10T series.

Anyway, at the end of the day, consumers cannot make use of the 5G radio present in their devices as the Indian government is yet to allocate spectrum to the carriers.

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POCO has now entered into the top 5 positions in India’s online smartphone brands. The company released a statement earlier today (15th December 2020) and marks another milestone for the Chinese tech giant in the region.

POCO India broke into the top 5 list of online smartphone brands, in terms of volume. This arrives after the company saw a very successful festive season during the months of October 2020. At the moment, POCO India is the fourth in the nation as per a report from IDC India, an analysis based firm, titled “National Monthly Smartphone Tracker, October 2020”. Notably, the company achieved this despite only announcing its independence back in January of this year.

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The company noted that “A strong and clear portfolio of smartphones such as POCO X3, C3, M2, and M2 Pro meant POCO cruised through the year with a strong community voice going for it.” For those unaware, POCO is an independent brand that was originally a subsidiary of the popular Chinese company, Xiaomi. POCO originally arrived in India with the POCO F1 and has since launched a number of budget friendly devices in the affordable and mid range segment in the Indian smartphone market.

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IDC (International Data Corporation) has released its report on India Smartphone Market Q3 2020. According to it, companies shipped 54.3 million units garnering 17% YoY growth. Online channels’ share reached an all-time high of 48% with 24% YoY growth, whereas the offline channels only witnessed 11% YoY growth. Interestingly, even without the 5G infrastructure, a million 5G smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2020 in India.

The ASP (Average Selling Price) of the Indian smartphone market was $156 with a 2% YoY decline. A whopping 84% of shipments consisted of sub-$200 devices, out of which 29% of handsets cost below $100. Sales were mostly due to e-learning requirements as smartphones are the only affordable medium for internet access in the country.

On the other hand, shipments of mid-range ($200 < $500) devices declined YoY, however, the premium segment ($500+) grew 91% YoY with Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus being the top brands.

Further, shipments of feature phones declined by 30% YoY with 25 million units. Therefore, feature phones only accounted for 31% of the entire mobile phone market in Q3 2020 whose overall shipments dropped by 4% YoY.

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Talking about brands, Xiaomi led the market with 13.5 million units in shipments and 7% YoY growth. Redmi 8A Dual, Redmi 8, and Redmi Note 9 were the top three best-sellers. The company also led the online smartphone market with a 35% share and its POCO brand shipped more than 1 million units.

In the second place, Samsung shipped 12.1 million units and online channels accounted for 43% of its entire shipments. India became the South Korean tech giant’s largest market in Q3 with 15% of its global shipment. The Galaxy M21 and Galaxy M31 were the company’s best-performing models online.

Then, vivo came third with 9 million units and 27% YoY growth. The brand stood first in the offline channels with a 29% market share, followed by Samsung. Then, realme acquired fourth place with 19% YoY growth by shipping 8 million smartphones. It was the second-largest brand online, followed by Samsung, and realme C11 was its best-selling model online.

Last but not least, OPPO stood at the fifth position 6.1 million units in shipments and 11% YoY growth. It was the third-largest brand offline and A12, A53, and A11K were its most shipped devices.

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