In the September to November 2019 period, Xiaomi and Samsung, the two major smartphone companies grew their market share after the festive season. However, the BBK Electronics owned Realme became the only brand which lost a large chunk of the market share in the same period as per the report of IDC for the respective period, as reported by ET Telecom. In the September month, Realme witnessed massive sales on account of the festive season thereby grabbing 16.74% of the market share, but at the same time, the market share declined to 9.3% and 8.23% in November and December respectively, the IDC data highlighted. According to Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC, the spike in the market share for Realme was because most of the online sales happen around the festive season and since Realme’s primary selling model is an online one, it saw an increase in sales. Realme sells 80% of its phones online.
Xiaomi Stabilises Market Share Because of Multiple Channels
She also added that the situation was a little different for Xiaomi as it has got different channels to sell its smartphones, and it also came up with offers and discounts for the consumers. The brand also launched the Redmi Note 8 Pro along with some other price cuts which helped Xiaomi in growing its market share after the festive season. A Xiaomi spokesperson also remarked that the Oct-Dec quarter has been a good one for Xiaomi. The brand sold a million pieces of the Redmi Note 8 Pro within the first month of the launch. With this, the Xiaomi spokesperson also said that in 2020, the brand would refresh multiple line-ups and would lay emphasis on specific product categories.
Samsung Market Share Helped by M30
Samsung was another smartphone brand which bettered its position in the market by increasing its share. The brand grew from having a 16.19% market share in September 2019 to 19.85% and 21.08% in October and November. Samsung also swelled its market share on the online front as well by growing its share from 10.3% in September to 18.77% in November, as per IDC data. As per Joshi of IDC, the M30 devices worked well for Samsung and drove online sales for the brand.
Vivo Grows Market Share
Another OEM which improved its market share in India was Vivo. While in September, Vivo had a 14.31% market share, it grew to 16.92% in November. As for the online market share, October was the high time for Vivo with 12.69% market share but the share dipping down to 9.58% in November. As per Joshi, the Vivo Z series drove the sales for the brand with a good offline emphasis on S and Y series. There was a slight dwindling demand in October and November.
Xiaomi and Others Still Clearing Inventory
Another BBK Electronics owned brand, Oppo, which is more bullish on offline sales, had a market share of 11.12% in November with not much changes to its market share. Although, Oppo also took to reducing some prices of its devices to sell out larger numbers. But even with the festive season behind us, these smartphone brands are still housing stocks of their handsets and have started providing discounts and offers to clear out this inventory. Xiaomi, Samsung and Realme, all three have announced some kind of offer and price cut across various models ahead of the Republic Day sale by the likes of Amazon and Flipkart. While Samsung has corrected prices for the A20 series, Xiaomi has cut down prices of at least nine models including Redmi K20 Pro and Redmi Note 8 Pro.
