Samsung was the undisputed leader in the smartphone market in India until Q3 2017. In Q4 2017, it lost its numero uno position to Xiaomi, and since then, the Chinese firm has been reigning the Indian market. Now, a report by the firm Counterpoint Research regarding India’s smartphone shipments in Q4 2019 has revealed that Samsung has lost its second place to China’s Vivo. Meanwhile, the year 2019 ended on a good note for India, as it became the world’s second-largest smartphone market by surpassing the US.
Xiaomi raked in a market share of 27 percent in Q4 shipments in 2019, unchanged from the same quarter in 2018. Vivo encountered a year-over-year jump of 132 percent which allowed it to grab the second spot in India’s smartphone market. In Q4 2018, it held a market share of 10 percent, which doubled to 21 percent in the same quarter in 2019. Counterpoint Associate Director Tarun Pathak said that Vivo managed to sell more phones in the Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 segments by aggressively marketing its phones in both online and offline markets.
With a YoY growth of 96 percent, OPPO retained its fourth place with a 12 percent shipment share in Q4 2019. In Q4 2018, it had a market share of 7 percent. Realme’s market share of 8 percent is the same as it was in the last quarter of 2018. Currently, three of the top five smartphone brands in Q4 2019 in India by market share belong to China’s BBK Electronics Group.
When it comes to yearly shipments, Xiaomi continued to rule the market by maintaining a market share of 28 percent in 2019. Samsung held on to the second spot a yearly shipment share of 21 percent. Vivo came in third with a 16 percent share, followed by other brands like Realme with 10 percent, OPPO with 9 percent, and others with 16 percent year shipments.
The market survey revealed that there was a steep 42 percent YoY decline in the shipment of feature phones. It was mainly because of reduced shipments from Reliance Jio. Itel became the number feature phone brand in terms of shipments in Q4 2019. Samsung and Lava came second and third, respectively. Brands like Lava, Nokia and Micromax registered positive annual growth.
The Counterpoint Research report further reveals that India shipped 158 million smartphones in 2019, making it the second-largest market after China. Notably, there was a growth of 7 percent year-on-year in India’s smartphone market in 2019.