The Indian smartphone space is quite volatile and OEMs try various different techniques to increase their overall sales. For a very long time, Samsung was the country’s leading smartphone brand in terms of shipments before the onslaught from Chinese brands started about 7-8 years back. Now the South Korean electronics giant has taken another hit after China’s Vivo overtook it for second the place in the Indian market. The first position has, for some time, been held by Xiaomi. These results have been posted by Canalys, in its analysis of smartphone shipments for Q1 2020.
Vivo has overtaken Samsung for the first time in India’s smartphone market
While Samsung was leading the sales chart ahead of Vivo in the first quarter last year, in 2020 it would seem that Vivo has taken the lead. Canalys Analyst Madhumita Chaudhary has said that Vivo’s high-sell for this quarter was due to planned stockpiles ahead of the IPL. However, with the lockdown in position, Vivo’s offline and online channels have been locked out and the company will struggle to sell when the lockdown lifts.
As of now, Xiaomi holds a 30.6 percent market share in the world’s second-largest mobile market with an estimated 10.3 million shipments in Q1 2020. Vivo just edges out Samsung with a 19.9 percent market share as compared to the latter’s 18.9 percent. Shipment-wise, Vivo shipped 6.7 million smartphones to Samsung’s 6.3 million. Realme was ahead of parent brand OPPO by a small margin, with a 3.9 percent share vs 3.5 percent.
The report from Canalys mentions that smartphone shipments in India are expected to fall in Q2 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown situation. “While parts of India emerge out of the lockdown and the government works out an exit strategy, worker availability, which depends heavily on opening state borders and allowing public transport, will be a key issue for vendors and ODMs. Additional manpower regulations due to COVID-19, like in China, is likely to slow down resumption activities in factories across India, directly impacting production capacity,” said Madhumita Chaudhary. It remains to be seen how long it takes for the Indian smartphone industry to come back to its feet after the lockdown ends.