China’s Oppo is going after mid-market buyers in India trading up from flip phones or budget smartphones. Photo credit: Oppo.
In a major milestone, Chinese brands now dominate India’s fast-growing smartphone market – that’s according to the latest data from IDC.
For the first time ever, more than half – 51.4 percent – of smartphone shipments in India are from Chinese companies. In sheer number of phones, these brands – particularly Xiaomi, Vivo, Lenovo, and Oppo – have rocketed 143 percent in the past year. The news comes as Chinese firms ramp up advertising and open Indian factories.
Much of that gain has been at the expense of lackluster Indian brands, which consumers have turned their backs on with alarming alacrity. Homegrown smartphone markers were 40 percent of the India market in the first few months of 2016, but that’s crumbled to 13.5 percent at the start of 2017.
Samsung, in this tumult, has managed to increase its grip on India, stretching its lead in the past year ahead of the quartet of Chinese assailants.
A few more facts from IDC’s new India data:
- Average smartphone price: US$155
- That’s up from US$131 last year
- Top model: Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 4
- That Xiaomi model beat out Samsung’s Galaxy J2
- 27 million smartphones shifted from January to March
- 95 percent are 4G-enabled
Editing by Judith Balea
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