After less than mediocre growth witnessed in the first two-quarters, the Indian smartphone market is expected to pick up its sales owing to the festive season, a new report said on Wednesday.
According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, about 28 million smartphones were shipped to the country and the Indian smartphone industry has registered 3.7 percent quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) growth, with a meagre 1.6 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) growth in the second quarter.
Thanks to demonetization late last year and the implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax) from July, the smartphone sales in India took a significant hit during the second quarter. However, with the festive season fast approaching, offline retailers have cleared the existing inventory and e-retailers are preparing for mega online sales. Analysts say that this is the best period for vendors to cash in on the festivities by launching new models and increasing their sales.
"The sentiment is indeed positive in the market. All the ambiguities have cleared now and vendors are gearing up for the upcoming festival season to recover from the slow start in the first half of this year," said Jaipal Singh, Senior Analyst, IDC India, in the report.
The report also mentions that the Indian vendors registered 18 percent QoQ growth in Q2 after having seen a continuous decline for the past three consecutive quarters, but the share still remains at 15 percent of the overall smartphone market. Meanwhile, the China-based vendors continue to dominate with 54 percent of market share, having registered 9 percent QoQ growth.
"Indian vendors are putting all their efforts and second half of the year will be crucial. Either it will see a revival of Indian vendors or emergence of new dominance in the sub-$150 segment from China-based vendors," said Upasana Joshi, Senior Analyst, IDC India
Despite registering a 4 percent YoY decline, Samsung remains the number one smartphone vendor in Q2 in India with a total of 24 percent market share. Right on its heels, Xiaomi retained its number two position with 17 percent market share, having registered a 25 percent QoQ growth from its previous quarter. IDC attributes this growth to the company’s expansion in the offline segment.
Chinese vendors, Vivo and Oppo grabbed the third and fourth place with 13 percent and 8 percent market shares respectively while Lenovo stands at 7 percent market share. "Reliance's 4G Jio Phone has created an excitement both in the channel and consumer front. This may stabilize the declining feature phone market in the short term and the year 2017 is expected to end with a similar volume as last year," noted Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India.
