The smartphone market in India, known in the past for its extreme fragmentation and a large number of both foreign and domestic smartphone vendors and models, is in flux. Years ago, vendors such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, and Intex were all prominent in the country, each with many popular smartphone models. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, only Reliance Jio, a major national mobile network carrier, had a smartphone model in the top-50. The new Jio Phone Next topped the chart, ranking as no.1, according to recent research from Strategy Analytics’ Smartphone Model Tracker (SMT). The other top-five models are shown below:

Xiaomi was, of course, the top vendor like it has been for the last 17 quarters, but what’s interesting is that Realme, the secondary brand of Chinese Oppo, has risen to become the number the no.2 vendor in India with more than 17% market share, surpassing even Samsung in Q4’21 though not yet for the full year. Vivo, another strong Chinese contender, ranked as no.4. After Xiaomi at 21% market share, the next three big vendor all fit within 3pp of market share, from 15% to 18%. No other vendors were above the 10% mark, although Oppo was quite close.

Another interesting fact is that Apple hit its all-time market share high in India at 5%, and Apple also scored a model in the top-10, namely the iPhone 12 5G at no.9, the highest ranking ever for iPhone in India, and proof that even expensive high-end models can reach the top ranks in the market among premium smartphone buyers. Additionally, 5G connectivity is becoming a more important purchase driver in the premium segment in India, though not yet a major purchase driver overall in the market. As the demand for 5G premium smartphones is eventually growing in India, Apple's position will likely improve gradually.

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.