Samsung and Xiaomi Now Control 45 Percent of Smartphone Market in India
The smartphone landscape in India is continuously growing, with two tech giants controlling nearly half of the market.
According to the latest "Market Monitor" research of Counterpoint, Samsung from South Korea and Xiaomi from China combined for 45 percent of the market share in the country for the third quarter of 2017. Moreover, the overall smartphone market also grew 37 percent from last quarter and 18 percent, year-on-year.
A report from Gadgets360 said that the numbers put India's smartphone market temporarily ahead of the U.S.' for the first time. Furthermore, the results of the Counterpoint research also mirrored that of Canalys'. The latter's report pegged the South Asian country at number two among the world's largest smartphone market, just behind China.
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"This is the first time since 2012 that Samsung and Xiaomi have reached this level of combined share," said Karn Chauhan, analyst for Counterpoint Research. "Additionally, the quarter was marked with return to growth for local handset players such as Micromax and Lava in the smartphone segment," he Chauhan added.
India recorded 84 million smartphone shipments, which is an all-time record for the country as far as feature and smartphones go.
Meawhile, AndroidCentral noted that Xiaomi is fast catching Samsung in India. Just for the second quarter of the year, the Chinese tech company has sold 23.16 million phones in the country, which is a 70 percent growth from the same time last year. Moreover, it eventually breached the 25 million sales mark after only three years of operation in India.
As for Samsung, the Korean manufacturer shipped 9.4 million units last quarter
Trailing the two were Vivo, which accounted for nine percent of the smartphone market share, and Oppo with eight percent, at third and fourth spots, respectively. For the featurephone market, Samsung still emerged as the leader, with 23 percent market share last quarter. It was followed by Itel (13 percent), Micromax (9 percent), Nokia (HMD) (8 percent), and Lava (7 percent).
The remainder of the market share for both catergories were divided among smaller players.
