The coronavirus pandemic has impacted several industries and business across the world including the smartphone industry. While the shipments increased 10% YoY during Q4 2019, the Q1 2020 report shows a modest growth as COVID-19 impacted shipments late in the Quarter.
According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone shipments in India crossed just over 31 million units in Q1 2020 and the growth was primarily due to the aggressive promotions and new launches. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, the shipments declined 19% in March alone, thus restricting the overall quarter growth to just 4%.
In Q1 2020, Xiaomi has 30% shipment market share which is followed by Vivo this time with 17%, Samsung with 16%, realme with 14%, OPPO with 12%, and other brands with 11% shipment market share. Vivo has 17% shipment market share in Q1 2020 and this means, it has surpassed Samsung to take the 2nd position.
| India Smartphone Shipments Market Share | Q2 2018 | Q3 2018 | Q4 2018 | Q1 2019 | Q2 2019 | Q3 2019 | Q4 2019 | Q1 2020 |
| Xiaomi | 28% | 27% | 27% | 29% | 28% | 26% | 27% | 30% |
| vivo | 12% | 10% | 10% | 12% | 11% | 17% | 21% | 17% |
| Samsung | 28% | 23% | 20% | 23% | 25% | 20% | 19% | 16% |
| Realme | 1% | 3% | 8% | 7% | 9% | 16% | 8% | 14% |
| OPPO | 9% | 8% | 7% | 7% | 8% | 8% | 12% | 12% |
| Others | 22% | 29% | 28% | 22% | 19% | 13% | 13% | 11% |
On the other hand, the feature phone market witnessed around 24% decline Year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2020 and Itel tops the chart with 22% feature phones shipment market share.
With the nationwide lockdown imposed currently, e-commerce websites are not allowed to sell “non-essential” goods which includes electronics. It is to be seen how these numbers increase or decrease post lockdown. Counterpoint Research suggests that any signs of recovery will likely only start from Q3 2020 and a 10% decline in the overall smartphone shipments is estimated for the full calendar year.