4.66 crore smartphone units were sold in India between July-Sept 2019

Multiple online sales festivals, new launches and price corrections on a few key models by brands helped smartphone shipments in India grow 9.3 per cent in July-September quarter to touch record 46.6 million units, research firm IDC said on Monday. Sequentially, Smartphone shipments were higher by 26.5 per cent in third quarter ended September 2019 compared to previous quarter. IDC expects smartphone market to see only mid-to-high single-digit year-on-year growth in 2019.

IDC study on smartphone shipment in India in Q3 2019

"This can be attributed to a strong undercurrent of passive consumer sentiment and muted shipments in last quarter of year due to a record Q3 2019 when channel stock levels went up," IDC India Research Director (Client Devices and IPDS) Navkendar Singh said.

ditionally, unabated aggression of online players will continue to be a challenge for offline channel, which remains largest channel for smartphones in India, he ded.

"All se give us an indication of sluggish growth next quarter," Singh said.

feature phone market, which accounted for 43.3 per cent of total mobile phone shipments, registered a 17.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in September 2019 quarter to 35.6 million units. Shipments of 4G-enabled feature phones declined 20.3 per cent y-o-y due to heavy inventory in channel, while that of 2G and 2.5G market fell 16.2 per cent in said quarter, IDC said.

RE | OnePlus les premium smartphone segment in Q3 2019, check out

" continued aggression by online platforms with attractive cashback and buyback offers as well as affordability schemes like -cost EMIs (equated-monthly instalments) and financing options were key in taking share of online channel to a record high of 45.4 per cent with y-o-y growth of 28.3 per cent," IDC India Associate Research Manr (Client Devices) Upasana Joshi said.

According to IDC, offline channel "continued to face challenges", leing to a 2.6 per cent y-o-y decline in third quarter. Even as offline channel players tried to match ir offers in line with online players, y fell short of attractive deals that a consumer could grab in online and were still dealing with leftover inventory from previous quarters, report said. Consumer enquiries and footfall were relatively slow at retail counters through September, compared to previous years, it ded. Xiaomi continued to le tally with 27.1 per cent share, followed by Samsung (18.9 per cent), Vivo (15.2 per cent), Realme (14.3 per cent) and Oppo (11.8 per cent).

RE | WhatsApp update causes battery drain issue, affects OnePlus users

aver selling price for overall smartphone market was USD 159, up 2.7 per cent y-o-y. low-end price segment of USD 200 accounted for 80 per cent of smartphone market in September quarter, while mid-range segment (USD 200-500) contributed 18.9 per cent of shipments. fastest-growing segment was USD 300-500 with double shipments y-o-y as models like OnePlus 7, Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro and Vivo V15 Pro saw good traction, IDC said. premium (over USD 500) segment saw Apple continuing to dominate market with a share of 51.3 per cent on back of "affordability offers and price drops on previous generation models".