Xiaomi is now the the leading smartphone brand in India, ahead of Samsung, according to the latest numbers shared by Counterpoint research firm. Earlier another research firm Canalys also declared Xiaomi as the number one vendor in the Indian smartphone market for Q4, 2017, ahead of Samsung. According to the numbers shared by Counterpoint, Xiaomi had a 25 per cent market share in the smartphone segment while Samsung stood at 23 per cent. Lenovo, Oppo and vivo are the other three players in the top five with each player having around 6 per cent market share.
However, Counterpoint also says Samsung was the market leader in both smartphones and the overall mobile phone market (includes feature phones) for all of 2017. Samsung had a 24 per cent market share in the overall smartphone market for the year 2017, well ahead of Xiaomi’s 19 per cent market share. This includes data for all four quarters.
According to numbers shared by the research firm, India saw mobile phone shipment cross 300 Million units for the first time ever for the year 2017. Smartphones managed to capture 44 per cent of the total volumes in 2017, says the firm. Still feature phones grew by nearly 55 per cent during the fourth quarter, notes the research firm.
“This surprising annual growth can be attributed to higher demand for smartphones and more so for feature phones coming from a weak quarter last year due to demonetization and this year with the entry of disruptive Jiophone which expanded the feature phone segment. The quarter also saw new device launches and strong promotions from various brands looking to catalyze the demand beyond Diwali,” Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research said.
On Xiaomi’s success, Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research said, “During the second half, players such as Xiaomi disrupted the status quo with an aggressive priced broader portfolio with effective channel expansion strategy. This helped Xiaomi to surpass the long-reigned market leader Samsung for the first time ever in a quarter ending the Korean vendor’s streak of market dominance of six years.”
Interestingly data from the research firm also said JioPhone was the best selling feature phone in Q4, 2017. Pathak pointed out that the budget JioPhone, which also has smart features and is 4G VoLTE enabled, captured 26% share in feature phone segment in just one quarter. “The 4G feature phone segment is 200 million units opportunity by volume over the next five years tapping into hundreds of millions of feature phone user base in India. While Jiophone saw healthy sell-in during the quarter but we believe the operator exited the quarter with some inventory which could affect the share in coming quarters,” added Pathak.
If one looks at the smartphone market, research firm Canalys also said that Xiaomi was leading in the segment. According to the research firm, the Chinese player’s shipments close to 8.2 million units in Q4 2017, while Samsung’s shipments stood at 7.3 million smartphones in the quarter. Samsung and Xiaomi now control 50 per cent of the smartphone market in India, with market leader Xiaomi at 27 per cent and second-place Samsung at 25 per cent, show numbers from Canalys.
Meanwhile, Samsung reacted to the Canalys report saying it was still the undisputed number one leader in the smartphone market in India. Samsung in its statement said, “As per GfK, which tracks sales to end consumers, in the last (November) quarter Samsung had a 45% value market share and 40% volume market share. Samsung is a full range player and leads the smartphone business across every segment of the India market in 2017. More importantly, Samsung is India’s ‘Most Trusted’ brand. We owe our undisputed leadership to the love and trust of millions of our consumers in India.”
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