Best October Ever In 2020, As India Ships 21 Million Smartphones In Just 1 Month

Indian smartphone industry experienced the best October ever this year with a 42 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth, a new report by International Data Corporation (IDC) claims.?

This was made possible by a total of 21 million units shipped in October.

Reuters

The report mentions that the high sales were driven by multiple festive sales online and the rising demand in Quarter 3 of 2020 following a nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.?

The IDC report states that this is the highest ever smartphone shipments in the month of October and second highest ever for any month in any year. The highest shipments, of 23 million units, were recorded in September 2020.

The growth was consistent across online and offline channels. Online shipments took a 51 percent share, with a 53 percent YoY growth. Offline channels also saw a 33 percent YoY growth as per the report.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

Among the various regions generating sales, 25 percent of the market was contributed to by the top tier cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata. Collective sales in these cities registered more than 50 percent YoY growth, thanks to the rising digitisation amid the pandemic. Emerging markets including Jaipur, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, and Coimbatore also grew by 50 percent YoY.

In the bigger cities, people tend to prefer online channels for the sales, accounting for a 57 percent share in the top 5 metros. The supply constraint, however, led a reduction in retail walk-ins. While the online channels were dominated by Xiaomi in 34 of the major 50 cities, while Vivo took hold of 44 of the major 50 cities with the offline channel.

As for the smartphone segment, the report mentions that the low-mid range segment (Rs. 7,500 - Rs. 15,000) grew by 60 percent YoY, increasing its share to 58 percent of the total market. The premium segment also recorded substantial growth led by the likes of iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and the OnePlus 8.

The report by IDC Monthly Smartphone Tracker states that the Top 5 vendors remained unchanged as in the previous quarter. Xiaomi is thus on the lead, followed by Samsung, Vivo, Realme, and Oppo.