Indian smartphone market dominated by Chinese players; Vivo shows impressive growth

With a market share of record 66 per cent, Chinese brands dominated the Indian smartphone market during Q1 2019, Counterpoint Research said on Friday. Volumes for the Chinese brands grew 20 per cent year-on-year (YoY) mainly due to the growth of Vivo, Realme, and OPPO.

With 29 per cent market share, Chinese handset maker Xiaomi remained market leader driven by aggressive offline expansion and new product launches, followed by Samsung and Vivo in second and third position, respectively. In the premium segment, the South Korean giant Samsung surpassed OnePlus to become the number one player driven by the good response for its newly introduced Galaxy S10 series.

Indian brands reached their lowest ever share due to ongoing competition in the smartphone segment. Lack of refresh, strong competition and slow growth of the entry-level segment where they had strong share were some of the reason for their decline, the report said.

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Vivo's share reached its highest ever level in India, driven by the V15 series launch and an aggressive marketing campaign around the same. Realme continues to grow fast in India, leveraging on the strong momentum for its Realme 3 model during the quarter, " Anshika Jain, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.

India's smartphone market continues to attract a lot of attention from Global and Chinese players. Data consumption is on the rise and users are upgrading their phones faster as compared to other regions. This has led to users spending more on their purchase which is driving up the overall average selling price (ASP) in the market, said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research.