Chinese Companies Grab Lion's Share As Smartphone Shipments Spike To Record High In India

Despite the growing anti-China sentiment in India, Chinese companies continue to dominate the country’s smartphone market. 4 Chinese companies featured in the top 5 while shipments in India reached an all-time high of 5 crore units in the September quarter, according to a new report by Canalys. Chinese vendors grabbing the lion’s share constituted 76% of total smartphone shipments in Q3 2020, up from 74% a year ago.

Recovering from the lockdown-hit, India’s smartphone shipments rebounded and posited a growth of 8%, an all-time record in a single quarter in India. Four Chinese companies feature in the top 5 with Xiaomi retaining its market leader crown with a 9% growth. Samsung replaced Vivo for the 2nd spot after growing at 7%, Vivo ranks third but registered a growth of 19%, followed by Realme and Oppo at the fourth and fifth rank respectively.

“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 Canalys Research Analyst, Varun Kannan. “However, the tensions have caused Chinese smartphone brands to act more conservatively in recent months,” he added. 

However, as per a report released by the research firm Counterpoint in October, Samsung is the smartphone market leader in India in the quarter that ended in September. Though, the firm is yet to publish the full report. As per Counterpoint, Korea-based Samsung has hugely benefited from aggressively pushing its online sales amid rising sinophobia. 

Domestic smartphone manufacturers like Micromax have announced to fight back against the Chinese dominance. Recently, 16 foreign and domestic companies were selected by the Indian government under its Rs 10.5 lakh crore plan to boost smartphone and electronics manufacturing in the country over the next five years. Not surprisingly, the billion-dollar plan includes no Chinese companies.