The smartphone market in India is notoriously fragmented between various vendors and models. Even though each of Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, and Realme had between 15% and 24% market share in the third quarter of 2021, followed by Oppo at 10%, the market is even more fragmented in terms of the various models being sold. But which price tiers generate the most revenue per model? The very high-end, for sure, at price points above US$600 (wholesale) generates the most revenue per model at $101m on in Q3’21 but is also very thin in terms of the number of models. In Q3, just five models on the top-200 list were in this wholesale price tier in India: three from Apple, one from Samsung, and one from OnePlus. These are expensive flagship products, and that price tier only accounted for some 7% of all smartphone revenue in India in Q3.

The US$500-599 wholesale price tier is similarly thin, with just eight models on the top-200 list in Q3’21, generating $66m per model on average. These are essentially just older flagships from Apple and Samsung, with a single Vivo 5G high-end model also on the list. So, putting the high-end aside, where is the sweet spot for revenue per model in India? According to research published by Strategy Analytics’ Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT), the answer appears to be the US$191-299 wholesale price tier. That price tier alone accounted for 27% of all smartphone revenue in India in Q3, with 33 models on the top-200 list. That’s roughly half the number of models compared to the US$100-190 price tier ($41m per model), the most crowded of all price tiers in the country. It’s also far fewer than in the US$36-99 price tier ($19m per model). This being the case, models in the US$191-299 price tier generate an impressive $60m per model.

So, which vendors are tapping into this pool of revenue with mid-range models in the US$191-299 price tier? Looking at the time period from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021, Oppo, Samsung, and Vivo have the most models in the price tier in question, with Oppo leading overall but Vivo having the most models (seven) in Q3’21. Samsung has been consistent with either 5 or 6 models in the top-200 across the whole time period. Xiaomi, despite being the market leader in India, seems to have increased its presence in this price tier since Q1’21. Similarly, Realme has had more than one model in the price tier only since Q2’21, when it had five, and now five again in Q3’21. Q3’21 is also the first time that other vendors besides Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Realme, and Oppo had ANY US$191-299 models in the top-200. These include OnePlus and Lenovo-Motorola, for example. As the revenue share (overall and per model) of the price tier has increased over the past year, so has the number of models from major vendors and some smaller ones, too.

Interested in the shipments, market share, wholesale pricing, and specs of the top-200 best-selling smartphones in India or other markets? Clients of our SMT service can get these, and many other types of data here.