Smartphone shipments in India touch record high despite slowdown, with Xiaomi taking the lead

Riding on the back of pre-Diwali shopping sentiment, India saw its highest-ever smartphone shipments in the July to September quarter, according to a new report by Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint.

The Indian smartphone market grew at 10 per cent year-on-year, and “reached a record 49 million units … offsetting the ongoing economic slowdown in other sectors,” Karn Chauhan, research analyst, Counterpoint, said in the report. The quarter on quarter growth reached 32 per cent, according to KrASIA analysis.

Smartphones now account for two-thirds of all the mobile phones that are sold in India.

“This was mainly driven by the spree of pre-festive season launches, aggressive marketing and incentivised channel strategy to maintain sufficient inventory to cash in on the festive season,” Anshika Jain, research analyst at Counterpoint, said in the report.

Chinese equipment manufacturer Xiaomi, with 26 per cent market share, maintained its lead over Samsung. The South Korean smartphone company grabbed 20 per cent market share followed by Vivo at 17 per cent. Of the three, only Vivo’s market share grew – almost 6 percentage points – over the last quarter, while Xiaomi and Samsung saw a 2 per cent and 5 per cent decline, respectively.

RealMe, a sub-brand of OPPO, saw its market share grow to 16 per cent this quarter from 9 per cent in the last quarter. OPPO, Chinese handset maker’s first and original brand, was the fifth-largest smartphone brand with an 8 per cent market share. Overall, four Chinese brands – Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme, and OPPO – reached record shipment levels in Q3 2019, and accounted for 67 per cent of the total shipments, the Counterpoint report stated.