The smartphone market in India is one of the most competitive spaces to be in right now. Although India does not leave a considerable mark in the smartphone manufacturing section of the market but, with the rise of 4G and the much anticipated 5G, the sales are roaring.
Smartphone companies are bombarding their products on to the consumers by launching multiple devices in a diversified range like – budget-friendly, gaming phones, battery champ etc. No matter what your budget and feature expectations, you will surely find multiple brands offering competitive smartphones in that range.
Overall Smartphone Market in Q1 2021
In the midst of the pandemic, as India saw a decline in cases towards the end of the first wave of the virus in early 2021, the shipment of smartphones in India grew by 23% YoY. According to a report by CMR’s India Mobile Handset Market Review, the Indian market saw strong demand for 4G compatible phones, with shipments for 4G phones growing 14% YoY.
Company- Wise Performance in terms of Numbers
The top three players in the Q1 2021 leaderboard were Xiaomi taking the number one space, followed by Samsung and Vivo taking the third spot. Here’s some more information on how the major smartphones companies performed in Q1 2021 –
Xiaomi, as we mentioned above, led the space with the mid-range, budget phone approach that works well in the Indian market. The company saw 8% YoY growth in shipments in the first quarter of 2021. The best performing smartphones for Xiaomi were Redmi 9 and 9A that together comprised 38% of the company’s overall shipments. Its sub-brand POCO saw an unbelievable growth of 467% YoY thanks to its budget-friendly approach.
Samsung held the second position grew 41% YoY with an 18% market share. This increase happened as the company entered the budget-friendly and mid-range phone segment with its A and M series phones.
Vivo and Oppo, sister companies, saw a YoY shipment increase of 20% and 16%, respectively. Vivo offered some premium range of devices, but its more affordable Y series contributed to 50% of the sales. Vivo holds 16% of the market share, whereas Oppo holds 11%.
OnePlus is another sister company of Vivo and Oppo but has a separate fan base of its own. It saw a whooping 400%+ increase in shipments, with the number of shipments almost reaching a million. OnePlus launched the mid-range series phone, the OnePlus Nord, which made up for 37% of the shipments for the company.
Apple surprisingly ranked 8th in the list of top smartphone companies in Q1 2021. Apple's iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models reckoned 71% of its total shipments.
Apart from these 4G smartphones brands, Nokia and Micromax witnessed a decline of 7% each in their 2G feature phone segment, whereas Lava had a positive increase of 15% YoY in shipments.
