• India smartphone market registers 8% YoY growth, with top five vendors accounting for 8 out of every 9 smartphones shipped in India
According to CMR’s India Mobile Handset Market Review Report for Q3 2019 released on 14th November, the India smartphone market grew at 8%, and saw increasing consolidation during the quarter, with the top five smartphone vendors now accounting for 8 out of every 9 smartphones shipped in India. Xiaomi remained the market leader in smartphone shipments, with one in four users buying a Xiaomi smartphone. While the brand saw its market share decline by 2% YoY, it saw positive growth for Redmi K20 series that contributed to 13% of overall premium smartphones.
The BBK Group, the parent company of OPPO, vivo, realme, and OnePlus, achieved a record high of 42% in Q3 2019, registering a 23% Year-on-Year (YoY) growth. On a YoY basis, realme grew an incredible 511%, while vivo recorded 87% growth.
According to Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, “The major highlight for the quarter is the sheer dominance of the BBK Group, that now accounts for a bulk of the play in the smartphone market across price tiers through clever market segmentation strategy aimed at varied consumer personas. In addition to the BBK Group, the presence of Nokia and Apple in the top ten smartphone leader board also points to the shifting market dynamics at play.”
The market share for affordable smartphones (<INR 7000) declined by 25%, while the premium smartphone band (> INR 25000) grew by an impressive 101%. The mid-tier value for money smartphones (INR 7000 – INR 25000) grew by 20%.
According to Kanika Jain, Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, “Historically, the third quarter remains a high growth point for the mobile handset industry, driven primarily by a cocktail of festive sales, attractive discounts, and online offers. It was no different this year.”
While Nokia’s smartphone shipments grew by 74% YoY, Apple returned to the top ten leader board with a 28% YoY growth, on the back of the successful iPhone XR and the increased shipments of iPhone 11.
Samsung (22%), itel (18%)and Lava (13%) rounded off the top three in feature phone shipments. Nokia and Karbonn with 8% market share each, were placed fourth and fifth in the feature phone leader board.
Key Market Highlights
Xiaomi remained the market leader, with the Redmi 7A, Redmi Note 7 Pro and Redmi Note 7S together contributing to more than 50% of its overall shipments.
Samsung saw its market share erode by 5% YoY during Q3 2019 even as the Galaxy A 50, A2 Core and the M30 did fairly well, contributing close to 50% of its overall shipments.
vivo had an impressive YoY growth of 87% in Q3 2019, driven by the Y and S series. The Y17 and Y91i alongwith the S1 contributed to more than 40% of its overall shipments.
realme saw a phenomenal growth during the quarter, driven by realme C2, realme 5 and realme 3i series, that together contributed to 66% of realme’s shipments in Q3 2019.
OPPO experienced a YoY growth of 44%, driven by successful series, including the A3s, A5s and A5 that contributed to 45% of OPPO’s overall shipments. The success of OPPO Reno 2 also helped OPPO register its presence in the premium smartphone segment.
Future Outlook
CMR anticipates mobile phone shipments to likely touch 280 million units by the end of 4Q 2019. “Going forward, on the back of the record shipments in Q3 2019, we anticipate the fourth quarter growth to slow down, on the back of low consumer demand and decreased shipments, in light of the existing channel inventory,” added Anand Priya Singh, Analyst-IIG, CMR.
