Chinese vendors drive smartphone sales in India

After witnessing a decline for two successive quarters, smartphone shipments in the country have picked up thanks to Chinese vendors, including Xiaomi and Vivo.

While shipments of both global and Indian vendor’s shipments declined in the second quarter of the calender year, Chinese handset brands saw shipments growing at healthy 75 per cent.

A total of 27.5 million units of smartphones shipments have been reported in the period. This is a growth of 17.1 per cent over previous quarter and a 3.7 per cent growth over the corresponding period last year.

Karthik J

, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India, said: “Lenovo group, Vivo, Xiaomi, OPPO and Gionee were key contributors driving the growth. Until now, Lenovo was the only China-based vendor to ship over a million units in a quarter, while this quarter saw additional three vendors joining the million shipments bandwagon.” Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 was not only the top selling model in online channel but also a star product for the vendor contributing majority of its total shipments in Q2 of 2016.

Indian brands such as Micromax and Lava have had a strong foothold in the sub-$150 segment. But this is now facing increased pressure from Chinese vendors.

China-based brands have also started making an impact in the premium segment ($300+) capturing around one-third of this segment in Q2 2016 from just 9 per cent a year ago. OPPO’s F1 Plus shipments grew further helping the vendor to gain reasonable share in a global vendor dominated segment.

According to IDC, Apple’s iPhone SE failed to make any significant impact in the premium segment while its previous generation iPhone 5S continued to contribute majority volume.

Online sales dip

Sale of smartphones online seems to be losing steam as e-commerce firms get stingy with big discounts. Online sales dipped to 28 per cent in CY Q2 2016 from 35 per cent in the previous quarter.

“Healthy growth in the offline channel, online-focused vendors expanding their footprint into retail channel followed by stringent norms to restrain excessive discounting on online platform are some of the reasons that could be attributed for online share decline this quarter,” IDC said.

However, with festive season approaching, online share is likely to bounce back with array of new launches and offers. In terms of market share, Samsung and Micromax continue to dominate the smartphone segment.