According to IDC, Xiaomi emerged as the top brand with a 27.3 per cent market share and 11.7 million units shipped in the third quarter
According to the latest data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), India has recorded the highest smartphone shipments in the July-September quarter. With about 42.6 million units and 9.1 per cent year-on-year growth, India’s smartphone market has reached on par with the feature phone market. The two main mobile devices have contributed 50-50 to the country’s overall mobile phone market.
Online Vs Offline
IDC brought out that the online sales contributed to the highest record in comparison to the offline stores. Upasana Joshi, associate research manager, channel research, IDC India said that strong online presence of the major smartphone brands in the e-commerce platforms had resulted in the quarter-on-quarter growth of 37 per cent, taking the online share to 39 per cent in the third quarter of 2018.
The festive season sales with attractive discounts by the online platforms are the main driving factor behind the sales growth. The offline channels also paced up with the kickstart of the festive season.
Offline stores, as per IDC reports, have registered a 6.6 per cent annual growth during the July-September period. E-commerce aggression, high decibel marketing, and exclusive models in the mass segment preferring to choose online over retail have been cited as the main reasons behind the slow progress. However, the report has also stated that the offline segment covers about 60 per cent of India’s smartphone market as it caters to people in the smallest towns and the metros as well.
Top brands
Xiaomi and OnePlus have emerged as the top two smartphone brands in the Indian market. These were followed by Samsung, Vivo, Micromax and Oppo. IDC stated that Apple’s recent launches – iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max were yet to garner the demand in the market due to its high prices.
Feature phone
According to IDC, the feature phone shipments registered shipments around 43.1 million units. Jio feature phones were reported to be declining in shipments. Samsung, HMD, and Lava have emerged as the leaders in this segment.
