Xiaomi maintained its top position as the Indian smartphone market grew 7.1 percent year-on-year (YoY), International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker has found. The market research firm says that a total of 32.1 million units were shipped in the first quarter of 2019. “Despite the government’s new e-commerce rules, online channels managed to sustain their pace, registering 19.6 percent YoY growth in 1Q19. Fueled by attractive offers and new launches by vendors like Xiaomi, Samsung, Realme, and Huawei, online sales reached 40.2 percent of the market in 1Q19,” Upasana Joshi , Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India, said.
IDC says that large shipments in the festival quarters (3Q and 4Q of 2018) led to high channel inventory, leading to flat YoY growth in offline channels in 1Q19. Average selling prices grew by 3.3 percent YoY, and this growth can be attributed to the growth in the $300-$500 segment, accounting for 6 percent of the overall smartphone market. This segment also outgrew all other price bands on the back of the Vivo V15 Pro.
“Samsung surpassed Apple for the leadership position in the premium ($500+) segment with an overall share of 36 percent in the quarter due to the Galaxy S10 flagship series. OnePlus followed, as its OnePlus 6T was the top-selling model in India’s $500+ smartphone segment,” Joshi added.
Meanwhile, the feature phone market, which still accounts for half of the total mobile phone shipments, registered 32.3 million-unit shipments in the quarter, with a sharp decline of 42.4 percent YoY. There was a sharp drop in 4G-enabled feature phones, declining by more than 50 percent YoY due to channel inventory from previous quarters. There was also a sequential dip in 2G/2.5G feature phones, IDC said.
Xiaomi maintained its leadership, growing by 8.1 percent YoY in the first quarter. Xiaomi continued to dominate the online channel with 48.6 percent share. Samsung continued in the second position with a YoY decline of 4.8 percent. However, its revamped product strategy of launching its online-exclusive M-series raised its online share to 13.5 percent on the back of the Galaxy M20.
Vivo continued in third position as its shipments doubled, driven primarily by its new flagship V15 Pro and affordable Y91. Oppo recaptured fourth position with a YoY growth of 9.7 percent backed by new models such as the K1 and the F11/Pro series, as well as its ongoing affordable A-series. Realme continued to feature in the top 5 vendors list, despite dropping to the fifth position. Its newly launched realme 3 series produced the highest shipments for the vendor.
According to Navkendar Singh, Research Director, Client Devices and IPDS, IDC India, “In 2019, we should expect further aggressive offline expansion by the online-heavy vendors in an attempt to get a wider footprint in smaller cities and towns. Having said that, the influence of the online channels and their focus on the smartphone business will continue. This will gain momentum in the all-important second half of the year since the affordability driving factors like EMIs/cashback offers continue to be top-of-mind attributes for consumers.”