Chinese domination shrinks India smartphone brands market share to only 13.5%

Key Highlights:

• Indian smartphone brands market share plunges to 13.5% in Q1
• Micromax market share reduces to just 3.3%
• Xiaomi jumps to No 2 spot with 39.8% growth due to Redmi Note 4 success

It seems that early on in 2017 Indian smartphone companies are losing their share to Chinese smartphone companies that are flooding the market. Chinese phone makers shipped 51.4% of the total smartphones shipped in the Indian smartphone market in Q1 2017, according to a IDC report. This is a 16.9% growth quarter on quarter and 142.6% year on year growth.

While Indian smartphone companies had 40.5% market share in 2016, in the first half of 2017 it has plunged to 13.5% market share. A massive 27% decline in market share in India.

Micromax, one of the top Indian smartphone manufacturers, saw its market share reduce to just 3.3% in Q1 2017 from 12.6% at the end of 2017.

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"The China-based vendors were already bringing majority of devices in 4G segment, which benefited them in leveraging the 4G wave demand in India," IDC said.

While Samsung was the only South Korean phone manufacturer in the top 5 list, it stood strong at No 1 spot with a 28.1% market share. The rest four companies in the top 5 were all Chinese-based phone makers.

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Xiaomi, which was not in the top 5 list in Q1 last year, jumped to second spot with a 14.2% market share. The smartphone maker saw a 39.8% growth in Q1 2017.

The reason for this huge growth was the success of the Redmi Note 4 priced at Rs 9,999 onwards and the Redmi 4A priced at Rs 5,999, said the IDC report. The Redmi Note 4 was the highest shipped smartphone in the country in Q1 2017. It replaced the Samsung Galaxy J2, which was the most shipped in last quarter of 2016.

Besides Xiaomi, Vivo was next with a 10.5% market share in the smartphone market in India. It's shipments grew by 44% over the same quarter last year.

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Lenovo, including Motorola, was the next Chinese smartphone maker with a market share of 9.5%. The company slipped down from third to fourth spot even as its shipments grew by 33.7%.

Oppo was in fifth spot with a 9.3% market share. However, its shipments grew only by 14%.

Micromax was at sixth spot with a 3.3% market share.

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"Homegrown vendors are making attempts to recapture the lost ground with new launches in sub-USD 100 as well as in the mid-range segment. But intense competition from China-based vendors continues to be a major challenge and is expected to increase in coming quarters," IDC India Market Analyst (Client Devices) Jaipal Singh said.

The reason for the success of Chinese brands is attributed to their aggressive pricing, faster adoption of 4G technology, better user experience and greater emphasis on cameras.

This was seen as the report pointed out that 62.2% of smartphones shipped by Chinese brands during the quarter had 13 megapixel or higher resolution cameras.

(With inputs from PTI)