Samsung pips Xiaomi to reclaim top spot for smartphone market shipments in India

Xiaomi is no more number one in the smartphone market as Samsung has eked out a lead of just 1% for the second quarter of this year. After Xiaomi at number two, the next three brands to secure a place in the top five leading names are Vivo, Oppo and Honor.

As per the latest findings from a research by Counterpoint, the smartphone market in India  witnessed a striking double digit growth – a good 18% YoY, despite an almost flat first quarter growth. The feature phone market on the other hand, continued to outperform the smartphone market with a 21% YoY growth. Among the fastest growing smartphone brands, OnePlus grew by 284%, Honor by 188 and Xiaomi by 112%, annually.

Anshika Jain, a research analyst with Counterpoint Technology Market Research shed some light on the results of the research. She said: “Growth during the quarter was driven by new launches and strong promotions across both online and offline channels during the quarter." Attributing a part of this success to smartphone companies leveraging the Indian Premier League, she pointed out that the brands planned their launches smartly and also executed some aggressive campaigns around the same time with a multitude of offers being introduced.

Karn Chauhan, another research analyst at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said the real victory for Samsung happened with the arrival of its refreshed J series, as it saw the launch of most number of models when one compares it to any other smartphone brand. “The new launches brought some of the most popular and sought after features like dual camera, infinity display, and facial unlock across different price segments for Samsung for the first time ever,” Chauhan said.

Talking about the market share of the top brands in India, Jain stressed that as the volume share of top five smartphone players rose over 80%, the local and not-so-big players were pushed to change the way they approach the markets with their phones. Handset components seeing an increase in duties at the starting of the quarter, forced some smaller players to delay their launches for lack of strategy to save on higher tariffs.