Samsung has hit back strongly at Xiaomi India during the second quarter of 2018. According to the data released by Counterpoint, Samsung reclaimed top spot from Xiaomi by securing a market share of 29%, while Xiaomi settled with a 28% share. Vivo and Oppo (including Realme) are third and fourth on the list with 12% and 10% share respectively. Huawei, with the help of its sub-brand Honor is the fifth largest smartphone brand in India with a mere 3% share. The top five brands captured a record 82% share of the total smartphone market during the quarter, said Counterpoint in a blog post.
Talking about the individual performance, Samsung regained its leader in Q2 2018 with strong shipments of Galaxy J6, Galaxy J2 (2018) and Galaxy J4, which focussed on the mid-range segment. Xiaomi, on the other hand, registered its highest ever shipments in India during the quarter. The top five models sold in Q2 2018 are Xiaomi Redmi 5A, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Samsung Galaxy J6, Redmi Note 5 and the Vivo Y71. Counterpoint revealed that the top five best-selling models captured almost 29% smartphone share during Q2 2018.
Xiaomi already confirmed that it sold over five million units of Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro and three out of five devices in the top five list belongs to Xiaomi. Even though the Galaxy J6 sporting mediocre specifications, it's Samsung's best-selling model in the quarter, thanks to the company's marketing. In fact, new launches from Samsung during the quarter like Galaxy J6, J2 (2018) and J4 series contributed to more than half of the total Samsung smartphone shipments.
Coming to Vivo, the Y71 was its best-selling model, but the V9 series is still the leader in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 segment. Vivo shipments increased sequentially driven by new launches, celebrity endorsement and aggressive campaign around IPL 2018. Its V9 became its most popular V series smartphone ever, said Counterpoint in its report. Other smartphones models such as the Oppo Realme 1, Honor 9 Lite, Oppo F7 and Xiaomi Redmi 5 also said to perform well during the quarter.
Oppo, which launched the Realme sub-brand to increase its online presence had a decent run with the Realme 1 as it managed to grab 1% market share of the total smartphone market in no time.
The OnePlus 6, which was launched at the end of Q2 2018 turned out to the best-selling model in the premium category, making it the leader for the full quarter surpassing Samsung and Apple. OnePlus saw a 284% growth during the quarter, thanks to the OnePlus 6. Honor and Xiaomi are the other two fastest-growing smartphone brands at a growth rate of 188% and 112%.
Sadly, Cupertino giant, Apple had a slow quarter because of the changes it underwent in the distribution strategy. "Apart from this, its domestic assembling is yet to pick up the pace, which means the Cupertino giant is still relying on imports for its sales in India. Apple had a 1% market share during the quarter, its lowest in recent history," added Counterpoint regarding Apple.
Besides, Lava is the only domestic handset brand which registered positive growth driven by the entry-level models including its first Android Go device- Lava Z50. Lastly, Transsion group, which is led by itel, Tecno, Infinix, Spice continues to grow in the smartphone segment in India. Tecno grew 74% sequentially as it brought full screen and facial unlock features at an entry-level price during the quarter, concluded Counterpoint.
