The smartphone market in India is again showing growth (+5% year-on-year) as of Q1 2017, after a notably weak Q4 2016. However, not all vendors were similarly affected by the dip. Back in February, I noted that Xiaomi was the only major vendor that managed to grow its shipments in India both sequentially (quarter-on-quarter) as well as YoY, and that in terms of models, Xiaomi smartphones had rapidly risen through the ranks on the list of best-selling smartphones in India. Xiaomi had four models in the top-50 in India in Q4 2016, an increase of one compared to Q3, and those models ranked higher than ever before, according to research by Strategy Analytics’ Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT) service.
In Q1 2017, Xiaomi still has four models in the top-50 in India, but this time, it has managed to capture the top spot in the market with one of its recent Redmi series models launched in the beginning of the year. Samsung still has the overall lead in the market and was dominant in the top-20 list of best-selling smartphones, but Xiaomi has managed to secure the second place in terms of vendor market share. To make things even more interesting, Xiaomi was not the fastest growing player in India in Q1, but rather Oppo and Vivo, both of which exceeded +200% in QoQ growth and even more in YoY growth. In terms of individual models, however, Xiaomi still stands head and shoulders above those two Chinese vendors.
In April, a report based on an AppOptix Telemetry panel survey conducted by Strategy Analytics stated that Xiaomi had the lead in consumers’ purchase intention in India as of Q1 2017. This seems to resonate well with our latest SMT research, confirming that Xiaomi is indeed right at the top in India when it comes to individual smartphone models. While Samsung continues to do well, their growth has been more limited compared to Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo. Apple, on the other hand, has long coveted the Indian market for its high volume and growth, but has not been very successful in winning the hearts and minds of the value-conscious consumers in the country. Its iPhone SE has been outsold by more affordable older-generation models, such as the 5s and the 6, and more recently, even the iPhone 7.
Interested in staying on top of the smartphone market in India with superior model-level detail? Our quarterly SMT report series includes the shipments and market share of the top-200 best-selling smartphones in India. The whole service itself covers 88 countries across 6 principal regions.
