It appears the government’s ‘make in India’ plans have affected our home-grown companies like Micromax as companies such as Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi have got into the top five smartphone makers in the fourth quarter 2016.

Samsung remains the top smartphone maker with 25.1 per cent market share, followed by Xiaomi at 10.7 per cent market share and Lenovo and Oppo at 9.9 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively. Vivo ranked fifth with 7.6 per cent market share, International Data Corporation's (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker said on Monday.

According to the IDC’s latest report, the smartphone shipments clocked 25.8 million units in the fourth quarter 2016 in the country, registering similar volumes as that of fourth quarter 2015 but declining sharply by 20.3 per cent over the previous quarter..

It registered 109.1 million units of smartphone shipments with a marginal 5.2 per cent annual growth in last CY.

This is mainly due to a seasonal decline after an all-time high festival quarter and demonetisation in the month of November, which led to relatively lower consumer sales in November and December.

In the smartphone market, the share of China-based vendors touched a whopping 46 per cent in the fourth quarter 2016, as their shipments doubled over the same period last year, while the share of home-grown vendors further slipped to 19 per cent, it said.

“This is first time when none of the home-grown vendors were able to make their position in top five. The decision of sticking with a 3G-heavy portfolio and prioritising the price game over product experience is working against the dominance of home-grown vendors,” Jaipal Singh, Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India, said.

On the expectations for this year, IDC expects 2017 to be a test of survival for many vendors as they struggle to survive in this extremely competitive smartphone market, possibly leading to consolidation.

“The feature phone segment is likely to contribute the majority of mobile phone shipments in 2017; the migration to smartphones is expected to further slow down due to the introduction of low-cost 4G feature phones and its continued relevance to its sizeable target consumers,” Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India, said.

However, replacement demand would drive most of the smartphone shipments in 2017, he added.