The latest data from IDC showed that Samsung regained the top spot in the Indian mobile market in the second quarter from April to June this year. Thus, it surpassed two Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi and VIVO.
Also read: Indian Smartphone Market To Decline By 15% In 2020
In the Indian feature phone + smartphone market, Samsung has a 24% share. It is followed by Xiaomi and VIVO. But the latter two currently only sell smartphones in India. If only the smartphone market is considered, Xiaomi ranks first. Even in this sense, Samsung has narrowed the gap, occupying 26.3% of the smartphone market in the quarter ended June, compared with 15.6% in the previous quarter. Xiaomi and VIVO’s smartphone market shares at the end of the quarter were 29.4% and 17.5%, respectively.
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IDC Explains Why Samsung Could Surpass Xiaomi and VIVO
Navkendar Singh, Research Director, Client Devices & IPDS, IDC India mentions, ‘The ongoing supply chain challenges forced the brands to go for direct imports to meet the pent-up demand post-lockdown, especially in June, adding extra cost pressures. Further, this surge in demand is expected to continue throughout the first half of 3Q20 as well, requiring a steady supply of devices in the market. IDC expects the market to show signs of recovery in the second half of the year, as we approach the festive quarter with the majority of the consumers looking to buy low-end and mid-range devices. However, this will be dependent on brand marketing and channel initiatives, especially by eTailers during the festive sales. Brand initiatives around multi or hybrid channel strategies will also play a key role as offline partners and brands will be looking for pockets of growth in these crucial next few months.’
In the second quarter of 2020, Xiaomi’s overall shipments fell by 48.7% year-on-year to 5.4 million units. Realme, ranked fourth, shipped 1.78 million units in the second quarter of 20, a year-on-year decrease of 37%. Oppo’s shipments in the second quarter fell 51% year-on-year to 1.76 million units.
IDC stated that the Indian smartphone market recorded a sharp decline of 50.6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020. From 36.8 million units a year ago, it reached 18.2 million units. IDC predicts that the market will show signs of recovery in the second half of 2020. Feature phone shipments in the second quarter fell 69% year-on-year to 10 million units. As a result, it got a 35.5% contribution rate to the overall Indian mobile market. This is the lowest rate ever in the field.
Feature phones ain’t smart phones…