Xiaomi once again led the India smartphone market with 26% market share in Q1 2021, as total shipments grew 23% (on-year) to reach over 38 million units in the January-March period, a new report said on Monday. The report cautioned that the second quarter is likely to be impacted owing to the lethal second Covid wave.
Samsung with 20% market share was second, growing the highest at 52% (YoY) while Vivo was third with 16% share, according to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service. realme was fourth with 11% market share.
"Continuing with its stellar run, India's smartphone market registered a third consecutive quarter of record shipments in Q1 2021, riding on pent-up demand. Consumer confidence also increased due to the beginning of a vaccination drive in the country," said Senior Research Analyst Prachir Singh.
"But these numbers should be taken with caution as a second and more virulent wave of COVID-19 is currently on in the country and is likely to impact the coming quarters," he cautioned. The Chinese brands held a 75% share in the March-ended quarter.
"Samsung maintained a high number of new product launches in its Galaxy M-series, Galaxy F-series as well as the Galaxy S21 series during the quarter. Besides, realme launched its 8 series, OnePlus announced its 9 series and Xiaomi launched its Redmi Note 10 series that has started well," said Research Analyst Shilpi Jain.
Xiaomi logged 4% YoY growth in Q1 2021 driven by the Redmi 9 series. The Redmi 9A was the best-selling model during the quarter. OPPO grew 12 per cent YoY and had an 11 per cent market share in Q1 2021.
OnePlus grew more than 300% YoY for Q1 2021 driven by the OnePlus Nord and OnePlus 8T shipments.
India's mobile handset market grew 19% YoY in Q1 2021 due to the strong performance of both feature phone and smartphone segments. itel led the feature phone market in Q1 2021 with a 21% market share.
The feature phone market registered a 14% YoY growth during the quarter driven by strong shipments of JioPhone under its new model and subsequent promotions.