said.
In the feature phone plus smartphone market Samsung (24% share) is now trailed by Xiaomi and Vivo which only sell smartphones. Though trailing behind Xiaomi in the smartphone market, Samasung has narrowed the gap, by capturing 26.3% of the smartphone market in the June-ended quarter as against 15.6% in the previous quarter. Its Galaxy
M21 smartphone was among the nation’s top 5 shipped models in 2Q20.
Xiaomi and Vivo ended the quarter with 29.4% and 17.5% smartphone market shares respectively.
Navekender Singh, research director at IDC India though said Samsung’s leadership may be temporary.
“Samsung’s market share gains in the bygone quarter happened primarily due to shortage in stocks for the China-based vendors and only minutely due to the anti-China sentiment. Vivo would have easily reached number two position in the overall market had it not been for Covid and the supply chain issues.”
Xiaomi’s overall shipments volume fell by 48.7% on year to 5.4 million units in 2Q20. Its Redmi Note 8A Dual, Note 8, Note 9 Pro, and Redmi 8 smartphone models accounted for a 21.8% share.
Coming in the fourth position, Realme shipped 1.78 million units in 2Q20, declining by 37% on year. Its affordable C3/C2 devices accounted for the majority of its shipments – 36.3%, followed by the newly launched Narzo series.
Oppo at fifth position witnessed a 51% on year fall to 1.76 million units in 2Q20.
India’s smartphone market registered a steep decline of 50.6% on year in the second quarter of 2020 to 18.2 million units, down from 36.8 million units a year ago, IDC said.
IDC expects the market to show signs of recovery in the second half of 2020.
The online channel registered a market share of 44.8% but fell 39.9% on year in unit terms due to lockdown restrictions on the delivery of electronics as well as severely limited stock for most of the quarter, IDC said.
“Many offline channel partners adopted new ways of marketing by reaching out to consumers through social media platforms, WhatsApp, references, etc., for doorstep demos and deliveries, as well as accepting contactless payments. However, these initiatives were limited to big and medium-size retail outlets in metros and Tier 1/2 cities, and was not able to arrest the steep annual decline of 56.8% for the offline channel,” said Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.
Feature phone shipments declined by 69% on-year to 10 million units in 2Q20, leading to a contribution of 35.5% to the overall mobile market, the lowest ever for this segment.
“Vendors faced major supply chain disruptions at the beginning of the quarter, and the shortage continued into the rest of the quarter as factories operated at partial capacity even after the lockdown was lifted,” the report said.
China-based components and parts remained at the ports awaiting clearances but the sales increased by June, primarily driven by pent-up demand from the lockdown period. “However, purchases were mainly driven by availability rather than by choice,” the report added.
“This surge in demand is expected to continue throughout the first half of 3Q20 as well, requiring a steady supply of devices in the market,” said Singh.
He added that IDC expects the market to show signs of recovery in the second half of 2020 as a majority of consumers look forward to buying low to mid-end devices in the coming festive quarter.
“However, this will be dependent on brand marketing and channel initiatives, especially by eTailers
during the festive sales. Brand initiatives around multi or hybrid channel strategies will also play a key role as offline partners and brands will be looking for pockets of growth in these crucial next few months,” he added.
