Xiaomi has emerged as the leading brand in the smart television category, according to IDC results.
Xiaomi has emerged as the leading brand in the smart television category, while Amazon is the clear leader in the streaming stick category in India, according to a report by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC’s report is on the growth of smart home products in India. The firm notes that these products saw a healthy year-over-year growth of 107 per cent, and hit 1.4 million shipments in the second quarter for 2018.
Keep in mind that this 1.4 million shipments includes connected lights, smart speakers, connected thermostats, smart TVs, home monitoring/security products, digital media adapters, among other connected devices for homes. According to IDC, the video entertainment category grew 81 per cent on a yearly basis, and this includes smart TVs, streaming sticks and set-top boxes.
This video entertainment category also dominates the smart home space in India and has a 85% unit share within the portfolio. On the individual vendor side, IDC said that Xiaomi tripled its shipments in the smart TV space in the second quarter of 2018, and leads in this category.
Xiaomi on its part claims to have sold half a million television sets in India over six months of launch. Xiaomi introduced its first Mi TV in India in February. However, it is unclear where Xiaomi stands in the overall television segment in India.
In the streaming stick category, almost 8 out of 10 streaming devices sold in the country were the Amazon Firestick, which shows the kind of dominance it enjoys over rival Google’s Chromecast.
“The Indian video entertainment market is seeing an upgrade to connected media devices and larger screen viewing experience. To drive the growth, companies are upgrading their product portfolios with smart SKUs, relooking at the pricing, and adding new channels to sell their devices,” Jaipal Singh , Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India said in a press statement.
The growth of OTT-content players Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, Sony Liv and a host of other streaming services is also helping to make the market more mature, he added.
Coming to smart speakers, this market saw a 43 per cent sequential growth in the quarter. Amazon is ahead of Google in this category with 59% market share. Google is a close second, though IDC did not specify the market share for the company.
“Although, the initial usage of smart speakers are currently limited to few use cases, as the smart homes market is at a very nascent stage in India, we are seeing signs of it growing beyond entertainment. Vendors are making efforts for building an ecosystem around the smart speakers, so as to provide superior consumer and connected home experience,” Navkendar Singh, Associate Research Director, IDC India explained.