Research conducted in India has revealed that over 330 million phones were shipped to India last year with 44% of which were smartphones. According to data obtained from Counter research, Xiaomi became the leader with 28% market share in the smartphone segment – leading Samsung with 4% (it became 5% in the last quarter of 2018).
While the likes of Samsung, Vivo, and Oppo are battling to stay in their current position, Xiaomi, on the other hand, is waxing stronger – boosting its market share. Records revealed that Xiaomi recorded its highest shipment in India last year thereby boosting its offline presence. The 31% shipment recorded last year came through online- thanks to Amazon and Flipkart records.
With over 430 million smartphone phone users, India has the second highest smartphone users in the world after China. It means that the market is still growing because that is not quite half of the potential market.
Their growth is said to have outpaced other brands even with the inclusion of smartphone features. They have grown from 10% to 11% year by year which makes Jio the new king of the market while Samsung has now fallen behind. Currently, Jio is the leader of the market both in features and smartphones combined. HMD’s Nokia is another company that managed to grow a little. They posted a small growth.
Counterpoint research also made us understand that the above data does not remove market competition. According to them, there is still enough room for market competition. An example is the Realme which moved to top 5 in its third quarter of operation (displacing the parent Oppo). The number of users rose to 4 million – faster than any other brand.
Even at that, Tecno is still the fastest growing brand with 221% growth in 2018 thanks to its increase in offline presence. This is why Realme should watch there back. The second position is occupied by Honor (183%) then Infinx with 146% and HMD with 138% growth.
The fastest growing premium smartphone brand was OnePlus with 58% market growth. It means that the Indian market is now moving towards the more expensive phones. If you compare the price of phones, you will see that the INR20 – 30,000 price range is growing faster unlike in 2017 when the INR10 – 15,000 segments were leading the market.
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