Samsung, Xiaomi and Realme, the top three smartphone brands, collectively captured 57 per cent of the total smartphone sales during Diwali season
Festive season in India brings cheers not only for smartphones customers in the form of discounts and exclusive offers but also boost sales of the phone vendors. Indian Diwali festive season this year, from October 9 to November 8, recorded a healthy growth in the sales of smartphones in the country.
During the festival season, smartphone sales grew at a rate of 26 per cent as compared to the same period last year, where the online channels sold nearly half of all the smartphones, according to a report by market research company – Counterpoint Research.
Massive discounts boost online sales
The series of online sale events on ecommerce players Amazon, Flipkart and Mi.com offered massive discounts and no-cost EMI on credit and debit cards on major smartphone brands led to the growth in the online channels, the report said.
Samsung, Xiaomi and Realme, the top three smartphone brands, collectively captured 57 per cent of the total smartphone sales during Diwali festive season.
During this period, maximum number of smartphones were sold by Chinese major Xiaomi, owing to the robust performance in online channels. The company also broadened the gap with its competitor Samsung, which still did comparatively well in offline channels, capturing a share of 30 per cent.
Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst with Counterpoint Research, said, “The overall India festive season smartphone sales registered highest ever growth of 26 per cent year over year in 2018. However, the online sale events which continued for weeks running up to Diwali helped these online platforms register a massive 46 per cent year over year growth in sales volumes and contributed to half of the overall sales.”
Chinese brands perform well
Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint Research, said that the newly launched online only Chinese smartphone brand Realme had a record performance in the festive season for any new brand ever in the country. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer captured 9 per cent share climbing to the third place in the overall sales volume. Realme became the second biggest in online sales segment with 18 per cent share.
In addition, Huawei had registered a strong performance in online channels whereas Vivo’s performance was exceedingly well in offline segments, Pathak added.
During the Diwali festive season, emerging brands like OnePlus, ASUS, Pocophone and HMD Nokia also witnessed strong uptake, owing to the launches of new smartphone models ahead of festive sale period.
However, Apple’s new models of iPhones got a relatively lukewarm response from the customers as compared to rest of the brands.
