(Express File Photo)The lockdown impacted several industries across the globe including the smartphone market. With the government easing restrictions on movement amid the pandemic, the situation has improved compared to previous quarters. According to the latest report from Canalys the Indian smartphone market is recovering and in the third quarter of 2020 smartphone shipments in the country have seen 8 per cent growth to 50 million units.
According to the report, Xiaomi continued to be the market leader, growing 9 per cent to ship 13.1 million units. Additionally, Samsung regained second place from Vivo, with 10.2 million units, up by 7 per cent. The report stated that it’s the “aggressive product portfolio and pricing strategy in the low-end” models that helped the South Korean smartphone manufacturer.
Following Samsung is Vivo that grew 19 per cent to ship 8.8 million smartphones, Realme shipped 8.7 million units in Q3 2020. Next is Oppo that shipped 6.1 million units followed by Apple, OnePlus and Tecno with market share of 1.6 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively. In Q3 2019, Xiaomi shipped 12.0 million units followed by Samsung (9.5 per cent), Vivo (7.4 per cent), Realme (7.1 per cent) and Oppo (5.7 million).
Last year in Q3, Apple and OnePlus occupied a market share of 1.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent. In comparison, this year Apple’s market share in India grew to 1.6 per cent while OnePlus’ market share dropped to 1.1 per cent. The report states that “Apple regained momentum in India in Q3, with double-digit growth to nearly 800 thousand units.”
Commenting on Apple’s performance in India this quarter Canalys Research Director, Rushabh Doshi said, “Apple is finally paying attention to India. It has opened a direct online store, giving it several new angles in its go-to-market strategy, such as utilizing device trade-ins to provide purchase incentives, or bundling AirPods with iPhones to make them more appealing. However, its new iPhone 12 family will be a tough sell in India this year, as network operators do not yet have the infrastructure for mass market 5G deployment, erasing a key feature of the devices. Not to forget, Apple’s pricing strategy for its new iPhones in India needs serious consideration.”
The report further stated Chinese vendors collectively comprised 74 per cent of total smartphone shipments this quarter, which has grown from 76 per cent a year ago.
“Ongoing tension between India and China has been a hot topic in the past few months, but we have yet to see a significant impact on purchase decisions of mass market customers,” said Canalys Research Analyst, Varun Kannan. “However, the tensions have caused Chinese smartphone brands to act more conservatively in recent months, reducing their marketing spend, and carefully trying to project the image that they are important contributors to, and stakeholders in, the economic future of India,” Kannan added.
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