At a time when global smartphone shipments were showing signs of recovery, their numbers declined by two per cent year-on-year in India during the third quarter of 2021 ending September 30. Overall shipments amounted to 52 million units during the three months with the dip resulting in spite of the robust festival sales over two months of the relevant quarter.
The decline was caused by among other things a spike in demand during the same quarter last year that was fuelled by a spate of revenge buying post the first phase of the pandemic-led lockdown. Additionally, the component shortage, especially in the chip-making, also had an impact as smartphone brands failed to upgrade the processors from their previously launched devices.
According to a report from Counterpoint Research, the smartphone market in India remains resilient and the quarterly numbers could have been higher but for the above mentioned reasons.
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Customer demand remains robust
The report quoted senior research analyst Prachir Singh to suggest that consumer demand outweighed supply due to high pent-up demand. "Keeping in mind the global component shortage, most of the brands were aggressively working to secure enough stock for the festive season. The demand in the online channels remained strong and reached highest-ever shipments in Q3 2021,” he said.
Chinese brands have continued to hold sway over the Indian market with a 74 per cent share in Q3 2021. Online sales channels continued to grow and ended having around 55 percent of the smartphone shipments during the said quarter.
Samsung pips Xiaomi; Apple surges
From a point of brand market share, Xiaomi topped with 22 per cent followed by Samsung with 19 per cent, Vivo (15 per cent), Realme (14 per cent) and Oppo (10 per cent) during the July - September quarter. Samsung nudged Xiaomi off the top position in terms of market share with 17.6 per cent over 15.5 per cent of the latter.
In the premium segment, Apple became the fastest growing brand with a 212 per cent growth year-on-year, capturing a huge 44 per cent share of the above-Rs.30,000 market segment. Strong demand from the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 drove this growth, the analysts said.
The analyst further indicated that the festival season has driven smartphone sales up in the ongoing October-December quarter due to demand during Dussehra and Diwali.
"This trend has been accelerated this year by the high pent-up demand backed by aggressive promotions in the mid and premium segments. We estimate that almost $7.6 billion worth of smartphones will be sold during the ongoing festive season," the analyst said.
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