Xiaomi really nailed it last quarter in India pushing Samsung behind to regain the number one position in the smartphone space. However, Samsung gave it back this time reclaiming the top position. According to Counterpoint Research, the smartphone market returned to double-digit growth (18%) YoY after flat first-quarter growth.
As for the feature phone market, the segment continued to outpace the smartphone market with a YoY growth of 21%. Samsung gained a total market share of 29% outshining Xiaomi’s 28% by just a small margin. This growth comes from the strong performance of models such as Galaxy J6, Galaxy J2 2018 and Galaxy J4. However, Xiaomi has seen a huge growth from 16% in Q2 2017 to 28% in Q2 2018. While Samsung jumped a good 5% from the same time last year.
After Xiaomi and Samsung, it is Vivo who is in the third spot with a market share of 12%, however, it dipped by a small 1% margin from Q2 2017. OPPO including its RealMe brand secured the fourth spot with 10%; same as Q2 2018. Huawei/Honor brand jumped from 1% to 3% in the Q2 2018. These top five brands resulted in a record 82% share of the total smartphone market during the quarter.
As for the feature phone segment, Reliance’s Jio is right on top with 47% market share compared to the 0.3% in Q2 2017. Jio is followed by the Samsung, Nokia, ITEL, Lava, and others. Counterpoint says that OnePlus, Honor, and Xiaomi were the fastest growing smartphone brands during the quarter. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Samsung Galaxy J6, Redmi Note 5, Vivo Y71 were the top-selling models in the last quarter.
Anshika Jain, Research Analyst said:
India’s smartphone market returned to double-digit growth during the quarter and is likely to grow in double digits for the entire year. Growth during the quarter was driven by new launches and strong promotions across both online and offline channels. Smartphone brands leveraged the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 season, as they timed their new launches and campaigns around the same with a slew of offers across multiple channels