Chinese phone brands have tightened their grip on the Indian mobile phone market. Chinese market share in smartphones increased to a record 66 per cent in the first quarter (January to March) of 2019—impressive considering that this is a market conventionally dominated by the likes of Samsung (Korea) and Apple (US) around the world.
Overall, India's smartphone sales increased by four per cent, according to Q1 findings by Counterpoint, a global telecom consultancy and research firm. While the sales in the festive Diwali-New Year quarter was sluggish, it picked up in the later months.
“India’s smartphone market continues to attract a lot of attention from global and Chinese players,” said Tarun Pathak, associate director, Counterpoint. “Data consumption is on the rise and users are upgrading their phones faster as compared to other regions. This has led to users spending more on their purchase which is driving up the overall average selling price in the market. As a result of this, the premium specs are now diffusing faster into the mid-tier price brands. We estimate this trend to continue leading to a competitive mid-tier segment in coming quarters.”
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Volumes for the Chinese brands grew 20 per cent year-on-year mainly thanks to the massive growth of brands like Vivo (a massive 119 per cent) as well as Xiaomi's Realme and Oppo.
Anshika Jain, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said, “The overall growth was slower than expected as some of the major brands were sitting on inventory after a stock build up during the festive period last quarter. This quarter we have seen all major brands expanding their footprint in offline channels to gain market share. Xiaomi has laid out big plans for offline expansion by increasing its number of retail stores (Mi Preferred Partners), Mi Homes and Mi Stores, specifically to target smaller towns. Realme, which started as an online-only brand, now gets the majority of its sales from offline channels. OnePlus is also now increasing its offline points of sale by launching exclusive stores across key cities.”
Chinese brands also dominated the top 5 best-selling list. Xiaomi Redmi 6A remained the top model following multiple price cuts followed by Xiaomi Note 6 Pro, Redmi Y2, Samsung Galaxy M20, and Galaxy A50. The top 10 models contributed to 35 per cent of overall smartphone shipments.
