India’s smartphone market saw shipments grow 23 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2017 to reach 40 million units. India has now overtaken the US to become the world’s second largest smartphone market after China, according to a report from Canalys Research. The study further indicates that Samsung and Xiaomi, which shipped 9.4 million and 9.2 million units respectively, accounted for almost half of the total market in the quarter.
There are nearly 100 mobile device brands sold in India, with more vendors arriving every quarter. In addition, India has one of the most complex channel landscapes, but with low barriers to entry. Report authors expect growth to continue, boosted by low smartphone penetration and the explosion of LTE.
Despite posting excellent results, the market continues to concentrate, with the top five vendors (Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo) now accounting for 75 percent of total shipments in India. Samsung shipped 9.4 million smartphones, nearly 30 percent more than in the third quarter of 2016. Second-placed Xiaomi increased shipments by over 290 percent to 9.2 million units.
The report also shows that Apple began local production in India earlier this year, and its iPhone shipments more than doubled to 900,000 units in the third quarter of 2017 compared with the same period of 2016.
