Xiaomi jumps to second place in smartphone shipments to India; Samsung retains top spot

Smartphone shipments in India grew a healthy 15% annually in Q1 2017, reaching 29 million units.

A person using a smartphone. Photo: Pixabay

Samsung continued to retain the top spot in the smartphone shipment market in India. However, Xiaomi, for the first time jumped to the number two spot. While Samsung had a 26% in the India smartphone shipments market share, Xiaomi came in next with a 13% market share in Q1 2017, according to a Counterpoint Research report.

They were followed by other Chinese smartphone makers such as Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo (which includes Motorola). Vivo has a 12% market share of smartphone shipments to India, Oppo had 10% and Lenovo had 8% during the quarter.

Smartphone shipments in India grew a healthy 15% annually in Q1 2017, reaching 29 million units. These top five brands contributed to almost 70% of the total smartphone market.

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Source: Counterpoint Research

Eight out of ten smartphones shipped supported a 5-inch or bigger display. Users are enjoying content on bigger screens, while cut-throat competition between telecom operators is resulting in low cost 4G tariff plans, said the report.

It terms of total shipment of handsets, ie smartphones and feature phones, in India Samsung was leading with a 26% market share. It was followed by Itel with a 9% market share, Micromax with 8% market share, Xiaomi 7% and Vivo 6%.

Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) capability in some networks is helping to drive a new device category called 4G feature phones (sometimes called ‘smart feature phones’). These are providing a way for current feature phone users to take advantage of low/no cost voice calls over the 4G LTE networks. Lava was the first to launch a 4G feature phone. Micromax, LYF, and other brands plan to launch 4G feature phone in the coming months, the report said.

Indian brands are expanding to overseas markets for growth as they are losing their footing in the home market.

In the mid-end segment (Rs 15,000-20,000, $230-$310) witnessed the highest growth of 158% YoY during Q1 2017. Most of the growth was driven by Samsung, OPPO, vivo, Gionee, and Motorola.

Source: Counterpoint Research

The premium segment (Above Rs 30,000, $465) grew a healthy 35% YoY. Samsung retained the top position with 48% market share, followed closely by Apple at 43% market share. OnePlus, OPPO and Google made it to the top five in this segment, but each with marginal shares.

Almost four out of five mobile phones shipped were made in India during Q1 2017. The imposition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will have an impact on domestic manufacturing and the government will need to continue incentives for locally manufactured mobile phones to further push the domestic manufacturing ecosystem, said the report.

Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research said, “India’s smartphone market is witnessing a focus shift in distribution strategy by major brands. Offline brands like OPPO, vivo and Gionee have now started focusing on online channels as well to gain extra market share. Online only brands like Xiaomi and Motorola are moving fast into offline markets to widen their reach to the mass market, addressing consumers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.”

He further adds, “While the Chinese smartphone brands are adopting multiple channel strategies to maximize growth, another Chinese brands iTel is disrupting the other half of the market (feature phones) by climbing to the number two overall mobile phone brand for the first time. iTel, also the number one mobile phone brand in Africa, is now leveraging its successful low-cost strategy, effective distribution and scale to grow in India market”.

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