SMARTPHONE SHIPMENTS UP 8% TO 50 MN UNITS: SURVEY

Smartphone segment in India rebounded after the lockdown to touch an alltime high of 50 million units in September quarter with Chinese companies collectively holding 76% market share, according to research firm Canalys.

All the top five smartphone vendors—Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Realme and Oppo—saw their shipment grow in the third quarter compared to the yearago period.

“Smartphone shipments in India recovered in Q3 2020, posting 8% growth to 50 million units (from 46.2 million units in year-ago period). This is an alltime record for smartphone shipments in a single quarter in India,” Canalys said in a statement.

Xiaomi remained the market leader with 26.1% share, shipping 13.1 million units. Samsung reclaimed the second place from Vivo, with 10.2 million units (20.4% share)—helped by its aggressive product portfolio and pricing strategy in the low-end paid off, it added.

Vivo had 17.6% share (8.8 million units), while Realme had 17.4% share (8.7 million units) and Oppo had 12.1% share (6.1 million units) in the said quarter. Apple regained momentum in India in the third quarter with double-digit growth to nearly 8,00,000 units.

Collectively, Chinese vendors comprised 76% of total smartphone shipments this quarter, which has grown from 74% a year ago, Canalys said.

This is, however, slightly lower than the June 2020 quarter, when Chinese companies had around 80% cumulative share.

“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,” Canalys research analyst Varun Kannan said. Canalys analyst Adwait Mardikar noted that smartphone vendors are bullish on the Indian market.