Samsung retained its top position in the smartphone market in India in the third quarter of 2023 (Q3 2023). The South Korean phone maker took hold of the market with a resounding 18% and shipped 7.9 million units, Canalys reports.
As per the report, Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi moved to second place shipping 7.6 million units of smartphones. The brand’s recent affordable 5G phones have been very well received in the South Asian country. Likewise, vivo dropped to the third spot with 7.2 million units. realme and OPPO were the respective fourth and fifth smartphone brands with the major presence with 5.8 million and 4.4 million units of shipment respectively.
The report indicates a positive trajectory for Android smartphones despite recent stats favoring Apple. In fact, Apple overtook Samsung in smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2023.
Also read: Samsung challenging Apple in Europe, but the latter remains dominant
5G phones helped grow the Android ecosystem in India
But Sanyam Chaurasia, Senior Analyst at Canalys says that smartphone OEMs promoted their products strongly for the ongoing festive times stressing more on the 5G devices that helped topple Apple’s growth.
Due to the measures put in place, affordable phones saw incremental growth in their demand. Xiaomi launched Redmi Note 12 5G and POCO introduced M6 Pro 5G both are entry-level 5G devices. Other brands such as Infinix, and Tecno also drove the segment during the quarter.
Premium devices also sold commendably
At the same time, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series and last iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 series also saw a rise in their sales.
“The growth in 2024 hinges on uncertain macroeconomic factors, particularly affecting the vulnerable entry-level segment. To maintain market share, vendors should prioritize reducing channel pressures and building a lean product portfolio. They should have ‘hero models’ in each price segment while maintaining balanced inventories across channels,” Chaurasia added. Check out: Samsung gets a record 5G speed of 1.75 Gbps at a 10km distance
In total, India saw 43 million smartphone shipments in Q3, 2023 marking a year-on-year decrease of 3% from 44.32 million in Q2 2022. The market tumbled by a huge 20% year-on-year decline in Q1 2023, which means the smartphone market is reviving as consumers’ confidence grows.
India is the world’s third-largest telecommunication market and has 931 million plus smartphone users. The figure is predicted to surpass 1.1 billion by 2025.