Despite battling with a pandemic-stricken year, smartphone shipments in India crossed 150 million units in 2020. The rebound from the sales slump was observed as the high sales of smartphones in the third quarter was also observed in the fourth.
The sales figures have been shared by a new report by Counterpoint Research. As per the report, India¡¯s smartphone shipments declined by 4 percent year-on-year, reaching just over 150 million units in 2020.
The decent overall sales despite a tough year is being credited to new use cases like e-learning and work from home. In addition, the industry observed a high consumer demand post the lockdown and smartphone OEMs ensured this converted to strong sales through hefty promotions on online channels.
Commenting on the market dynamics, Senior Research Analyst Prachir Singh said, ¡°The Indian smartphone market maintained its momentum in Q4 2020 after a record-breaking third quarter. As Diwali was in mid-November this year, we witnessed high shipments during October as well.¡±
As for the fourth quarter, the Indian smartphone market grew by 19 percent year-on-year. This was also because of an extended festive season as compared to Q4 2019, due to Diwali falling on November 14.
Amid these, Chinese smartphone makers held a major market share as the anti-China sentiment slowly took a back seat. Commenting on the competitive landscape, Research Analyst Shilpi Jain said, ¡°The anti-China sentiments largely subsided by the end of the year with Chinese brands holding 75% market share in 2020.¡±
Among the players in the industry, Xiaomi managed to capture the top spot in Q4 2020 with a strong 13 percent year-on-year growth. This was propelled by a strong demand for the Redmi 9 and Redmi Note 9 series as well as aggressive offers during the festive season.
Samsung ranked second in Q4 2020 while exhibiting a strong year-on-year growth of as high as 30 percent. Samsung bagged the same spot in the Indian market for the entire year 2020. The high sales were a result of a change in strategy by the company by taking its offerings online.
Vivo remained the top offline player in 2020, observing a 13 percent year-on-year decline due to the pandemic. Realme, on the other hand, crossed the 20 million units mark for the first time with a 22 percent growth in 2020, thanks to its C-series and Narzo series.
Oppo shipments remained flat in Q4 2020 but grew 11 percent year-on-year in 2020. The company also increased its manufacturing capacity in India and kept its focus on product innovation, especially related to 5G.
Record shipments were observed by several other brands, including Poco, Transsion Group brands (Itel, Infinix and Tecno) as well as OnePlus, with the last one observing a 200 percent year-on-year growth in Q4 2020 thanks to its Nord and 8T series.
Apple grabbed the sixth spot in Q4 2020 with 171 percent YoY growth in Q4 and 93 percent YoY growth in 2020. These sales numbers were propelled by the launch of the iPhone 12, aggressive offers on the iPhone SE 2020 and iPhone 11, and online expansion of its portfolio. For the first time, Apple crossed 1.5 million shipments in a single quarter.