Smartphone shipments in India dropped 13 percent between Q1 and Q2 2021, to 32.4 million units, due to the second wave of COVID-19.
Xiaomi has remained the market leader, shipping 9.5 million units for a 29 percent share.

Samsung stayed in second place, shipping 5.5 million units for a 17 percent share.

Vivo came in third with 5.4 million units shipped.

Realme overtook Oppo for fourth place, shipping 4.9 million units against Oppo’s 3.8 million.

Canalys Analyst Sanyam Chaurasia said: “Smartphone vendors in India had assumed COVID-19 would not return, and several planned to invest in infrastructure for branded stores and partnerships with third-party offline channels. But once again they were quickly compelled to pivot to an online strategy.”

Brands that succeeded in the online space were the ones to carry the most momentum in Q2. “Xiaomi, despite its overall sequential decline, actually grew its online business, primarily thanks to the Redmi Note 10 series,” said Jash Shah, Canalys Research Analyst.

Realme also saw online momentum, particularly with its Narzo 30 series, as it used price cuts during brand-focused days to overtake Oppo. Oppo entered the direct online channel in May.

Increasing costs will be challenging, amid limited component supply, rising shipping charges and a tough macroeconomic environment. In the short term, vendors will bear the impact of supply chain disruption, and will be conservative about raising prices.

The component shortage also brings another risk – regional deprioritization – as brands look to allocate their limited supplies of devices to more lucrative markets.