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

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

Xiaomi captured the top spot in Q2 2019 with a 28% share. Its shipments grew 6% YoY driven by portfolio expansion and aggressive offline expansion in the 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. 

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

This is the third consecutive quarter that Realme has been within the 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 the 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, the brand continues to be in the top ten smartphone brands category. 

Feature phones decline steeply: 

While the smartphone market registered growth YoY, the 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 the market for Jio. Due to the slowing demand for Jiophone players such as Samsung, Lava and iTel were able to capture share in sub-INR 1000 segment during the quarter, as per Counterpoint Market Monitor Research. 

Commenting on the 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 the market with online-exclusive series are now expanding their reach towards offline channel by forming partnerships with key offline retailers.” 

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

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

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

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