Xiaomi continues to be top smartphone brand in India: IDC

Powered by festive sales and attractive cashback offers, smartphone shipments in India have witnessed a stellar growth in the third quarter.

India's smartphone shipments, recording over 9% growth, shipped a record 46.6 million units in the third quarter of 2019, said research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) in its report.

Smartphone shipments saw more than 26% rise in the July-September quarter compared to the last quarter.

Festive offers sprinkled with various discounts and affordable offers like no-cost EMIs and easy financing options took the share of online channel sales to a record high of 45.4% with YoY growth of 28.3%.

The low-end price segment of $200 (below Rs 14,000) still accounted for 80% of the overall India smartphone market in the quarter. The price segment of $200-30O (Rs 14K-20K) was the second-fastest-growing segment with 47.8% YoY growth in 3Q19.

Xiaomi, which emerged as the top smartphone vendor, recorded its highest ever smartphone shipments in a quarter with 12.6 million units. The Redmi 7A and Redmi Note 7 Pro were the highest shipped models in the overall smartphone market. Xiaomi had the largest market share of 27% in the quarter.

Xiaomi, in its five years of existence in India, has emerged as the number one smartphone brand in the country. MIUI, Xiaomi's Android-based operating system for its phones, claims to have about 279 million monthly active users (MAU). The smartphone brand has retained the number one position for the past eight quarters.

Samsung and Vivo shipped 8.8 million (18.9%) and 7.1 (15.2%) million smartphones grabbing second and third positions respectively. The tally was followed by Vivo (15.2%), Realme (14.3%) and Oppo (11.8%).

In the premium segment (over Rs 30K), Apple continued to dominate with a market share of 51.3% in the quarter.

The offline channel continued to face challenges, leading to a 2.6% YoY decline in the third quarter, added the report.

The unabated aggression of the online players will continue to be a challenge for the offline channel, which remains the largest channel for smartphones in India. All these are indicators of sluggish growth next quarter, said Navkendar Singh, Research Director, Client Devices & IPDS, IDC India.