In the intense battlezone of a market that India is, a new victor has emerged. Vivo has now overtaken Samsung as the second biggest player in the country.
India is one of the fastest-growing and biggest smartphone markets in the world, with an estimated 350 million users. This competitive space has finally seen the podium change, as Vivo is now the second-largest smartphone maker in the country, relegating Samsung to the third position. Xiaomi continues to be the market leader with a rather comfortable lead.
According to Canalys’ latest report, Vivo now has a market share of 19.9%, bringing it to the second position behind Xiaomi at 30.6%. Samsung’s share fell to 18.9%. The next spots are occupied by Realme and Oppo.
In terms of shipments, Vivo moved around 6.7 million smartphones in Q1 2020 compared to the 4.5 million devices shipped in Q1 2019, which resulted in 48.9% YoY growth. On the other hand, the Korean giant, Samsung managed to ship 6.3 million smartphones in Q1 2020 compared to the 7.3 million units in the same period last year, that resulted in a negative 13.7% YoY growth and lost the second position to Vivo.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi shipped 10.3 million units in Q1 2020 compared to the 9.5 million units in Q1 2019. The biggest change came with Realme, exhibiting a whopping 200% growth annually, taking the shipments to 13.9 million units versus the 1.3 million units in Q1 2019. Lastly, Oppo has also seen an annual growth of 22.4% with 3.5 million devices shipped in Q1 2020.
Amongst the aforementioned top five smartphone vendors, Samsung is the only one to not grow positively. The other combined to push the overall smartphone shipments up by 12%. Interestingly, all of them have their roots in China, now accounting for over 70% of the Indian market share altogether. Samsung is facing a lot of challenges from Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme, who are offering smartphones with great hardware at an aggressive price point. Although Samsung managed to launch multiple budget devices under A-series and M-series, they just couldn’t keep up with the competition.
The smartphone shipments for the second quarter are expected to be underwhelming, as all smartphone sellers (online and offline) were not functional for over a month due to the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown that is expected to last for a few more weeks. Once they get the green signal, manufacturers will scamper to meet their yearly targets.
