Indian Smartphone Market Grew 10% In 2018. Xiaomi Still Maintains No. 1 Position
The Indian smartphone market is a very competitive one. Being one of the biggest smartphone markets in the world, it is natural that everyone wants a piece of the pie. The problem with that is increased competition in the space. There are a lot of players competing in the market and everyone is trying to come out on the top. But according to research by a well-known analyst firm Canalys, the Indian smartphone market grew by 10% in 2018 over the previous year. The company that took the most advantage out of it, was Xiaomi, which claimed the No.1 spot in shipments.
According to the research, Xiaomi saw shipments of around 41 million shipments over 25.7 in 2017. The brand saw its market share soar from 20.6 in 2017 to 29.9 last year. The second place is occupied by Samsung, with 35.4 million shipments in 2018. With that, Samsung saw its market share grow from 23.6 to 25.8 over the period of 2017-2018. Other players in the top 5 were Vivo, Oppo, and Micromax respectively.
The Indian Smartphone Market In 2019
India has become Xiaomi’s biggest market worldwide, bigger than China which is the home country of Xiaomi. In the fourth quarter of 2018, it shipped 9.4 million smartphones to China, and 10 million to India. Despite the global smartphone market decline of sales last year, the Indian smartphone market stayed unfazed, even managed to grow significantly in the time period. More growth is expected in 2019 for the Indian smartphone market.
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The ideology of providing more specs for a low price seems to have managed to resonate with the Indian audience. Canalys also expects that with the announcements of the Budget 2019 taken into consideration, more growth will be on the horizon as the disposable income will increase. According to the report, India now has 10% of the world’s smartphone market, up from 6% five years ago. It is one of the 6 markets out of the top 20 which saw positive full-term growth.
