Xiaomi Tops Q2 2019 Market Share With 6% Growth In Shipments, Huawei And Samsung Decline in New Research Report

smartphone shipments in India grew to 37million units, annually during Q2 2019 setting a second-quarter shipment record, according to latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. growth was driven by new launches, price cuts on older devices and channel expansion across brands. 

Xiaomi captured top spot in Q2 2019 with a 28% share. Its shipments grew 6% YoY driven by portfolio expansion and aggressive offline expansion in budget segment. Xiaomi is expanding its retail strategy with increasing investment in ATL/BTL campaigns. 

Samsung shipments declined by 7% YoY, however, it has shown 30% growth quarter-on-quarter driven by refreshed A series and M series, price cuts of older J series and higher channel incentives during IPL season. 

A-series remained quite popular with Galaxy A10 being top-selling device for brand. brand also expanded its Amazon exclusive M-series with launch of Galaxy M40 smartphone during month of June. Samsung remained strong in premium segment with good performance of its Galaxy S10 series. 

This is  third consecutive quarter that Realme has been within  top 5 brands driven by strong performance of Realme C2 and Realme 3 Pro and various discount offers rolled out on online platforms. Realme C2 crossed 1 mn mark within a couple of months of launch. It became  fastest brand to reach 8 million smartphone shipments in India market within one year of its debut for any brand ever in India. 

Huawei’s trade ban also impacted India market as its shipments declined YoY, However, brand continues to be in top ten smartphone brands category. 

Feature phones decline steeply: 

While smartphone market registered growth YoY, feature phone market witnessed a steep decline of approximately 39% annually coming from strong demand for Reliance Jio’s Jiophone a year ago and some inventory built-up in market for Jio. Due to slowing demand for Jiophone players such as Samsung, Lava and iTel were able to capture share in sub-INR 1000 segment during quarter, as per Counterpoint Market Monitor Research. 

Commenting on market strategy, Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, said, “Brands which focused on offline channels expanded to online channels with online-exclusive series. Similarly, brands which entered market with online-exclusive series are w expanding ir reach towards offline channel by forming partnerships with key offline retailers.” 

“In India, pricing sweet-spot for consumers has moved to Rs 10,000-20,000 price band and it will remain biggest contributor in India smartphone segment this year,” he added. 

Commenting on overall smartphone market, Anshika Jain, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research said, “ top five brands’ contribution to total shipments volume reached its highest ever level driven by new launches and hybrid channel strategy. Localization, branding, and invation will remain to be next key drivers for growth in a highly competitive market like India. market will continue to become more concentrated with majority of share controlled by a few brands leading to more number of exits among long-tail brands in market moving forward.” 

feature phone demand is back to 2017 (pre-Jiophone) level but it remains to be seen if entry-level smartphones in coming quarters are able to attract hundreds of millions of feature phone users. Due to slowing demand for Jiophone players such as Samsung, Lava and iTel were able to capture share in sub-INR 1000 segment during quarter. 

Also Read: Apple IPhone Shipments Down By 20% In Q1 2019, You Will Be Surprised By  Reason Estimated