Canalys on Thursday said that the smartphone market in India has rebounded in the third quarter of the current year with the market registering an 8% growth to 50 million units. The independent analyst company said that the smartphone market delivered an “all-time record” in terms of shipments in a single quarter in the country. Canalys said that Xiaomi has remained the market leader with the company registering an 9% growth in shipments to 13.1 million units. Xiaomi in the same period in 2019 is said to have shipped 12 million units with the company then having a 25.9% market share.
Samsung Clinches Second Spot with its Strategy
However, Canalys said that the improved shipments that Xiaomi registered in the 2020 third quarter has enabled the company to extend its market share to 26.1% in the country.
“Smartphone vendors are definitely bullish,” Adwait Mardikar, Canalys Analyst, said in the release. “While almost all vendors have shown positive shipment growth, the true winners are the online channels, who have been buoyed with a huge influx of devices ahead of the festive season.”
Canalys said that Samsung has regained the second spot from Vivo with its “aggressive product portfolio and pricing strategy” working for the South Korean giant. Samsung is said to have registered an 7% growth in shipments with the company said to have shipped 10.2 million units in the third quarter.
“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,” Varun Kannan, Canalys Research Analyst, said in the release.
Chinese Vendors Accounted for 76% Total Smartphone Shipments
Despite dropping to the third-largest smartphone brand in India, Vivo is said to have registered 19% growth to ship 8.8 million units in the third quarter of 2020. Realme and Oppo completed the top five with the companies shipping 8.7 million units and 6.1 million respectively in the 2020 third quarter.
Canalys highlighted that the Chinese vendors accounted for 76% of total smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2020. In the same period in the previous year, the Chinese vendors are said to have accounted for 74% of total smartphone shipments.
“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,” Kannan said.
Meanwhile, Apple is said to have “regained momentum” in India with the Cupertino company shipping around 800,000 units in the third quarter of 2020.
“The lockdown forced most of working India to stay at home and refrain from big-ticket spending on travel, food and beverages, increasing the overall dispensable income,” Mardikar said. “On the other hand, unemployment has risen, impacting the lowest rungs of society most, and affecting the long-term outlook of India’s smartphone market. As much of India remains physically disconnected, the smartphone has increasingly become a necessity not only for social connection but also for entertainment, education, banking, payment and more.”
