IDC has revealed the India market share of top smartphone makers during the festival season in the country.
Samsung, despite the recent Note 7 battery issue, has retained the top spot for smartphone makers in India.
Micromax, the traditional number two vendor in the recent quarters, has slipped to fourth position behind Lenovo and Xiaomi in October 2016. Huawei and ZTE are not in the top five charts of the top smartphone makers in India, said IDC.
IDC India has revealed that both Vivo and Oppo have gained in the Indian smartphone market.
Leading 30 cities of India registered growth of 20.4 percent quarter on quarter in Q3 2016 over Q2 2016. During the festive month of October 2016, the Tier 2&3 cities achieved of 23.3 percent growth over previous month due to focus on new affordable launches, higher spending on marketing, exchange offers and innovative payment options.
“Top 8 to 10 cities of India constitute the major portion of online sales, leaving a gap between these markets and the still largely untapped smaller towns,” said Upasana Joshi, senior market analyst, IDC India.
Consumers from Tier 3 and 4 cities showed significant interest in the online sales this year during the festival season.
China based players contributed significantly to the growth at the retail shops, while continuing to dominate the online channel. These vendors collectively accounted for more than 40 percent market share in the top 30 cities during Diwali month, primarily driven by 4G enabled handsets.
Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo challenged Indian phone makers.
In the premium smartphone segment of $300 and above, Apple grew on the back of the iPhone 7 series and iPhone 5s and 6. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is also an attraction for Indian. Samsung gained across both offline and online channels.
The demonetisation process, currently underway, will lead to a significant but temporary contraction in the mobile phone market in Q4 2016. Due to slower sales of smartphones because of the currency situation, the inventory in channel is piling up in India.
Baburajan K
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