Chennai: The Indian smartphone market has capitalised on the festive season effectively to claim second spot in shipment of smartphones, overthrowing the US in the July-September quarter.
According to a report by research firm Canalys, India saw shipment of 40.4 million units during the third quarter while the US could only do 40 million units. China however stayed on top with more than double the number of shipments than India with 100.6 million units during the third quarter.
“India overtook the US this quarter to be the second largest market, though both countries were hit by weaker seasonal performance compared with last year,” the report from Canalys stated.
Indian moved up the order despite worldwide smartphone shipments fell by 7.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 348.9 million units during the quarter. It also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of decline.
“This was also the worst third quarter performance since 2015, seven of the top 10 markets recorded y-o-y declines, caused by lengthening smartphone replacement cycles, worsening international trading conditions and competition from major Chinese vendors,” it added.
The three markets (among the top 10) that registered growth were Indonesia (13.2 per cent increase y-o-y to 8.9 million units), Russia (11.5 per cent jump y-o-y to 8.8 million units), and Germany (2.4 per cent rise y-o-y to 5.5 million units).
China’s smartphone shipment declined 15.2 per cent y-o-y, India by 1.1 per cent and the US by 0.4 per cent. Samsung led the vendor tally with 20.4 per cent share in the said quarter, followed by Huawei (14.9 per cent), Apple (13.4 per cent), Xiaomi (9.6 per cent), and Oppo (8.9 per cent).
“The worldwide smartphone market faces an unprecedented challenge, while its dynamics are changing rapidly at both the vendor and country level. This is providing growth opportunities for aggressive vendors with the speed to respond quickly to market changes,” research manager, Canalys, Rushabh Doshi said.
Despite the decline, it is expected that the global shipments will improve with the intriduction of new mobiles, especially flagship phones such as the Mate 20 series, OnePlus 6T and Mi Mix 3. Migration to 5G services is also expected to bring increased demand for smartphones next year.
| In lead despite decline |
| Although the world market declined, Samsung claimed the biggest pie in the market, registering 20.3 per cent market share, said research firm IDC in its ‘Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker’ report.
Of the smartphone makers, the IDC report states that Samsung shipped 72.2 million smartphone units, representing a 13.4 per cent decline from its Q3 2017 results. It is followed by Huawei with 14.6 per cent of smartphone shipments, Apple ranks third, with 13.2 per cent market share. The other OEMs listed among the top five smartphone vendors include Xiaomi and Oppo. |