According to the latest Counterpoint report, Online smartphone market in India now stands at 43% market share, registering a growth of 17% year-on-year. Flipkart remains the leader in the online segment with a 53% market share, but Amazon registered the highest 38% Year-on-Year growth.
As for smartphone brands, Xiaomi still retains a comfortable lead but burgeoning competition from Realme and Samsung have made a noticeable dent in its share.
Commenting on the findings, Anshika Jain, Research Analyst stated, “Price cuts of popular devices and more launches drove online channel shipments to the highest ever level In Q1 2019. Xiaomi’s Redmi 6A, and Note 6 and 7 series, Samsung’s online exclusive M series, Realme 3, HONOR 10 Lite, and ASUS Zenfone Max Pro series were the major contributors for the growth of the online segment. The high online channel share indicates that the new e-commerce policy has limited impact, and e-commerce giants have found a way to cope.”
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Indian smartphone market Q1 2019: Key Highlights
- Redmi 6A was the best selling phone online in India in Q1, 2019. The sales were high in the latest Amazon sale.
- Redmi Note 6 Pro, Redmi 6A, and Redmi Note 7 series contributed to two third of Xiaomi’s online sales.
- With 11% market share, Realme is now the third largest brand online followed by Asus, which now holds the fourth spot.
- Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 was the fastest growing segment driven by Xiaomi and Huawei phones. Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro was the best performing model in this segment.
- With its new aggressive online stance and the new affordable M-series, Samsung registered 31% year-on-year growth and increased its market share to 15%.
- The offline market segment declined 4% year-on-year.
The report reflects what has been fairly obvious. This year a number of brands are challenging Xiaomi with aggressively priced offerings and are gradually eating up in its market share.
Xiaomi still retains the top spot by a comfortable margin, but the majority of the growth comes from a select few models. The results from the next quarter (Q2, 2019) should be even more interesting.
According to an earlier report from counterpoint that considered the collective online and offline share of different brands in Q1 2019, Xiaomi held 29% market share, and Samsung followed close at 23%. Vivo stood third with 12% market share and Realme stood fourth with 7% market share.
