Chinese smartphone makers have increased their dominance over the Indian market in the first quarter of the year. According to Counterpoint research, four of the top five smartphone companies in India are from China and these companies have captured a solid 66% market share in the previous quarter of the year.
While she market share owned by Xiaomi has dropped a little from 31% in Q1 2018 to 29% in Q1 2019, Vivo’s market share has experienced a significant rise in the same amount of time. Vivo’s market share increased from just 6% last year to an incredible 12% in the first quarter of 2019, taking for itself a decent 7% share of this highly competitive market. OPPO’s market share went up slightly to 7%.
Samsung’s smartphone shipment market share experienced a slightly dip to 23% in the previous quarter, down by 3% YoY. However, Samsung gained some moment in the feature phone market. Here, they saw an increase from 10% in Q1 2018, to 15% in Q1 2019. Jio remains at the top of the feature phone market with 30% market share.
There are other brands which managed to do well in the Indian market such as ASUS, especially in the budget segment, thanks to its phones from the Zenfone series. Tecno and Nokia HMD are doing great as well. Since Chinese brands are dominating the market, the decline of the Indian brand shipments has begun. In the previous quarter, shipments from local Indian brands recorded their lowest ever shares.
The report also mentioned that Samsung has climbed above OnePlus in Q1 2019 to become the number one smartphone maker in the premium segment. Since OnePlus next flagship, the OnePlus 7 Pro is expected to be released on May 14, we expect that there are some changes in the coming quarters.
Finally, most smartphone companies are making a strong push into retail sales. Xiaomi, OnePlus, and even Realme have had benefits since they increased their focus on brick and mortar stores. As such, we could expect the strategy to continue in the coming quarters.
