Samsung, Micromax lose; Lenovo, Xiaomi win as India buys a record 35m smartphones

An Indian bride holding a smartphone. Photo credit: Pexels.

Smartphone shipments in India hit a record 35 million units in the September quarter, a study by Counterpoint Research said. That’s a 25 percent rise over last year’s numbers. Chinese phone companies won, while running leaders Samsung and Micromax lost market share.

The September quarter leads up to the festive season in the country, which culminates in Diwali. It is considered an important selling season for retailers, many of who make as much as one third of their annual sales during this time.

Both Samsung and Micromax saw market share drop by 4 percentage points. They still held the top two spots, but with reduced market shares. Samsung had a 21.6 percent share of the market this September quarter, compared to 25.6 percent in the previous quarter. The chief reason was the rise of the Chinese brands, Counterpoint said.

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Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo all gained share to move up rankings and make top 10. Vivo and Oppo climbed into top ten smartphone brands through offline distribution targeting Samsung and Micromax, Counterpoint said.

Micromax fell from 14 percent to 9 percent. The numbers are still preliminary, and could change as final tallies come in. Apple had a 1.3 percent market share during the third quarter, as users waited for new iPhone 7 launch in October, analyst Tarun Pathak said.

“We estimate Apple to cross 1 million for the first time in India during the fourth quarter of 2016,” he said.