Xiaomi leads smartphone market with 26 per cent share

NEW DELHI:  Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi retained its top slot in the Indian smartphone market with 26.1 per cent market share during the third quarter of 2020. It shipped 13.1 million units, a rise of over 9 per cent when compared to a year-ago period, while Samsung came in second with shipments 
increasing 7 per cent to 10.2 million units, according to research firm Canalys.

Vivo stood in the third place in Q3, growing 19 per cent to ship 8.8 million smartphones, while Realme breathed down its neck with 8.7 million units shipped, Canalys said. The fifth in the row is Oppo having shipped 6.1 million units. Overall, smartphone shipments in India stood at 50 million units in Q3 2020, an all-time record in a single quarter, after falling by 50 per cent in the previous quarter.

The research firm added that the domestic smart market is yet to see any significant impact of the Indo-China tension. Together, Chinese vendors comprised 76 per cent of total smartphone shipments this quarter, up from 74 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,” he added.

Share of Chinese vendors’ in Q3, however, is slightly lower than the June 2020 quarter, when Chinese companies had a cumulative share of around 80 per cent. Experts feel that Reliance Jio’s upcoming smartphone has the capability to disrupt the domestic market. Reports suggest that Jio’s unannounced 5G smartphone could be priced as low as under Rs 5,000 at launch.