Last updated on : April 15th, 2020 by Techferal

New Delhi, January 24, 2020:

India's smartphone market surpassed the USA for the first time on an annual basis, becoming the second-largest smartphone market in the world, reaching 158 million shipments in 2019 with an annual growth of 7%, according to the latest research from the Counterpoint Market Monitor service. This is due to the high growth of the mid-level segment where Chinese OEM aggressively introduced many flagship-level features and capabilities to capture the demand from users looking to upgrade from their first or second smartphone. In addition, online channels became the preferred sales platforms to introduce these products more quickly in the market.

Xiaomi continues to capture the number one position for the second consecutive year.
Realme (255%), Vivo (76%), Asus (67%) and OnePlus (29%) were the fastest-growing annual smartphone brands.
The combined participation of the five main smartphone brands (~ 84%) reached the highest level. Annex 1: India smartphone market share 2019
Source: Counterpoint Research Market Monitor 2019

                                                        Exhibition 2: India Y-2019 smartphone market share

Source: Counterpoint Research Q4 Market Monitor 2019

While the Indian smartphone market registered year-on-year growth, the market for feature phones experienced a sharp decline of around 42% year-on-year in 2019 and 38% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2019. This is due to a slowdown. in new Reliance Jio shipments. However, players such as itel, Lava, Nokia and Micromax registered positive annual growth despite the overall decline in the segment. In fact, itel emerged as the number one feature phone brand in the fourth quarter of 2019, followed by Samsung and Lava.

Market Summary:

The Indian smartphone market grew 7% year-on-year in both the fourth quarter of 2019 and 2019 due to the expansion of Chinese brands with its aggressive pricing and promotion strategy.
Xiaomi grew 7% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 5% year-on-year in 2019, driven by the expansion in offline channels and the solid performance of its Redmi Note series. India is now the largest market for Xiaomi, beating its local market, China, in 2019. However, the growth rate has declined to a single digit since Xiaomi is now serving a much larger installed base in India. Therefore, 2020 will require specific strategies related to retention and acquisition of users, respectively.

Vivo grew 76% year-on-year in 2019 and 134% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2019 boosted the good performance of its series of budget segments. In addition, by successfully passing the S line and aggressively positioning the S series in the offline segment with new features, it managed to make a dent in the INR 15,000 -INR 20,000 segment ($ 250- $ 300). Because of this, Vivo captured second place for the first time in the Indian smartphone market.
Samsung shipments remained almost flat year-on-year in 4Q19, while showing a 5% year-on-year decrease in 2019 as a whole. Samsung shipments were driven by its improved A and M series (A50, A30, M30 and A20). This is the first time Samsung has transitioned to a completely new portfolio aimed at different channels (out of line with the A series and in line with the M series). However, it must double to maintain momentum.

OPPO shipments almost doubled to /an in the fourth quarter of 2019, due to the demand for its A5s budget segment device and the good performance of its recently launched A9 2020 and A5 2020 devices in the offline segment. OPPO is now aggressively targeting higher price points with the introduction of the new Reno series.

Realme grew 255% in India in 2019. Realme's growth was driven by an aggressive market launch strategy that involved the launch of several top-notch industry features with a strong design language. This is resonating well among young consumers looking for devices with good value for money. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the kingdom also entered the premium segment for the first time with its X2 Pro device, which began selling heavily.

All major brands now aim to expand at the medium to the high price level, which is probably the fastest-growing segment in 2020.

Transsion Group (Itel, Infinix, and Tecno) achieved its largest market share in the fourth quarter of 2019. Transsion remained strong in the cities of