Chinese smartphone makers increase market share in India despite anti-China sentiments

The anti-China sentiment post the India-China standoff at Galwan Valley in May has had little impact on the Chinese smartphone makers in India. Even as some sections of society called for a boycott of Chinese products, smartphone sales figures indicate Chinese brands are still the most preferred in India.

Also, the impact of COVID-19 in India has been a dichotomy of sorts for smartphone sales. The economic slowdown and pandemic doesn’t seem to have affected the sales.

Not only did the Chinese smartphone makers — Xiaomi, Redmi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo — topped the list like before, the season (July-September) also marked record sales in a single quarter with smartphone shipments of nearly 50 million units.

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Compared with the same quarter last year, the market share of the Chinese smartphone makers registered a marginal rise from 74% to 76% of the Indian market. Smartphone vendors are definitely bullish on the market.

Xiaomi remained the market leader, growing 9% (annual) by shipping 13.1 million units. Korea’s Samsung regained the second place from Vivo, with 10.2 million units, up 7%. Vivo stood third, growing 19% to ship 8.8 million smartphones, while Realme breathed down its neck with 8.7 million units shipped. Oppo completed the top five, shipping 6.1 million units.

“Ongoing tension between India and China has been a hot topic in the past few months, but we have yet to see a significant impact on purchase decisions of mass market customers,” said Varun Kannan, analyst at Canalys Research, a technology research firm.

However, he said that the tensions between the two countries caused Chinese smartphone brands to act more conservatively in recent months, reducing their marketing spend and carefully trying to project the image that they are important contributors to, and stakeholders in, the economic future of India.

Xiaomi’s managing director Manu Kumar, in a tweet, said the company sold 5 million units just during the festival period. “Happy that we’ve positively impacted the lives of 50 lakh users. 15,000+ retail partners helped us achieve this,” he tweeted.

5️⃣ Million smiles!😀

Humbled that 5️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ Mi Fans bought our Smartphones this festive period. 🎉

Happy that we've positively impacted the lives of 50 lakh users. 15,000+ retail partners helped us achieve this! 🇮🇳

Thank you all!🙏 #DiwaliWithMi #NoMiWithoutYou

I ❤️ Mi pic.twitter.com/0TvuA7lzgr

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) October 23, 2020

As the COVID forced many to remain physically disconnected, smartphones became a  necessity for social as well as for entertainment, education, banking and other needs. Work from home and the shift to online education also led to the rise in smartphone sales. Besides, innovative marketing strategies with vendors reaching out to customers through WhatsApp, promotional and discount sales by e-tailers also helped.

Even as unemployment rose impacting the lowest rungs of society the most, smartphone sales remained unaffected.

“The lockdown forced most of working India to stay at home and refrain from big-ticket spending on travel, food and beverages, increasing the overall disposable income,” Adwait Mardikar, another analyst at Canalys said.

iPhone-maker Apple wasn’t left behind. With the company opening an online store and with its go-to-market strategy, the company gained momentum with double-digit growth to nearly 8 lakh units during the period.

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The US-based technology giant also closed its biggest real estate deal in India by securing an office rental space of four lakh sq ft in Bengaluru’s central business district (CBD) area. With the company strengthening its base in the country, it could come out with budget models to compete with Vivo and Oppo while its upper segment (say iPhone 12) might take a hit with lack of 5G infrastructure in the country.

The government measures to lift the lockdown restrictions in a phased manner after the second quarter helped vendors sell much before the festival season kicked in.