India smartphone brands double down amid China dominance, COVID-19 delays

To meet the demands of India’s growing mobile-first market, domestic brands are ramping up manufacturing amid mounting challenges—from their Chinese rivals and the constantly changing consumer demand amid delays brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

China brands dominating mobile-first India

India is considered the next smartphone capital of the world—second to China—with an estimated 820 million users in the next two years, according to Statista data. ENV Media’s latest research, which utilizes proprietary data and analytic feedback from its properties including Indian affiliate SevenJackpots, pointed out that the wide array of affordable mobile devices as well as cheap data packages are driving the country’s mobile market growth. The research estimated that “around half of all smartphone users in India play mobile games,” with Android-powered devices as “the primary medium.” 

It’s worth noting, however, that India’s smartphone market is currently dominated by Chinese mobile devices. ENV Media’s report found Xiaomi is at the top of the list of mobile device brands preferred by online gamblers players in India, who are particularly fond of playing mostly teen patti, rummy, matka, andar, texas hold’em poker and online lottery on websites like 10Cric.com

“We see that Chinese-origin devices and brands dominate the scene, with Samsung holding an important market share as well. Apple appears beyond the 20th position for the first time,” the ENV Media report noted.

“Xiaomi leads ahead of Samsung, with Vivo a little further behind. Oppo and Realme gravitate around the 10% market share, still a solid performance. OnePlus confirms its status—sought, most likely—as a premium smartphone brand, rivaling Apple in the segment.”

Counterpoint Market Monitor data also showed that of the top 10 smartphone models in India, five are from Xiaomi—which holds a 26% market share as of Q1 2021. Samsung places second with 20% market share, followed by Vivo (16%), Realme (11%), Oppo (11%), and others (16%).

India smartphone brands eye comeback

India brand’s smartphone share has been dismal, at least in the first quarter of 2021. Micromax only had 0.5% market share, while Lava had 0.4% and Index and Karbonn had nearly zero market share, Counterpoint Research showed.

Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma also cited the second wave of COVID-19 as one of the factors that affected the entire economy, particularly the smartphone industry which has witnessed an overall drop in terms of sales.

“However, the global chipset shortage continues to pose a big challenge for the entire sector, and we are actively looking at exploring alternative solutions to effectively deal with it,” Sharma told IANS.

Sharma confirmed that Micromax is “gearing up to launch new products into the market soon.” The Indian smartphone brand has already rolled out a couple of new devices, including “IN 1,” which offers a price tag of INR 10,499.

Government-wise, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has also approved several applications for mobile phone manufacturing under the PLI scheme—including Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics for the domestic market, and Samsung, Foxconn Hon Hai, Pegatron, Rising Star and Wistron.

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