India’s smartphone market hits record 50 mn units in Q3

Smartphone shipments in India recovered in Q3 2020, posting 8 per cent growth to 50 million units (from 46.2 million units in year-ago period).

New Delhi: Smartphone segment in India rebounded after the lockdown to touch an all-time high of 50 million units in September quarter with Chinese companies collectively holding 76 per cent 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 year-ago period.

“Smartphone shipments in India recovered in Q3 2020, posting 8 per cent growth to 50 million units (from 46.2 million units in year-ago period). This is an all-time record for smartphone shipments in a single quarter in India,” Canalys said in a statement. Xiaomi remained the market leader with 26.1 per cent share, shipping 13.1 million units. Samsung reclaimed the second place from Vivo, with 10.2 million units (20.4 per cent share) – helped by its aggressive product portfolio and pricing strategy in the low-end paid off, it added.

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Vivo had 17.6 per cent share (8.8 million units), while Realme had 17.4 per cent share (8.7 million units) and Oppo had 12.1 per cent 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 per cent of total smartphone shipments this quarter, which has grown from 74 per cent a year ago, Canalys said.

This is, however, slightly lower than the June 2020 quarter, when Chinese companies had around 80 per cent 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.