India’s market has become another battlefield for China’s mobile phone manufacturers. The second largest market after China showed 36 million units of smartphone sales, a 7% increase YoY. Four of China’s companies are putting greater pressure on Samsung, according to an Indian smartphone market third-quarter report released by Yonhap news agency on Sunday.
The report shows that Samsung mobile phone is still veteran in India market taking the first place, with a third-quarter share of 26%. Chinese player Xiaomi ranked second with its share increasing to 25%. In the second quarter of this year, Samsung had a market share of 21.2%, while Xiaomi recorded only 15.6%.
Three other Chinese companies monopolized the other positions in the top five. Vivo had 10%, OPPO 9%, while Lenovo’s market share fell to 7%.
“As China’s market saturates, the fast-growing India market will become a much more important market for smartphone manufacturers next year,” the report said. The Indian market is growing fast in both consumption and retail sector, as India’s retail sector surpassed China with anticipated growth of $1.3 trillion by 2020.
Statistics show that the most popular smartphone prices between $100 to $150 in the Indian market. Chinese manufacturers have launched a large number of products within this price range, cultivating Indian fans.
Replicating the pattern in the Chinese market, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers in India have had great success, as they launched high quality Android mobile phones, which have the same configuration with that of iPhone, but with a much lower price tag.
The Red Mi Note, Red Mi 4, Red Mi 4A were the three most popular mobile phones from Xiaomi (in Korean) in India, and Samsung’s low-end mobile phone Galaxy J2 ranked fourth.
Huawei may have beat Apple in global mobile phone sales since June, becoming the world’s second-largest smartphone brand, next only to Samsung. However, Huawei failed to enter the top 5 in India.