Indian Smartphone Market shows 5.2-per cent growth in 2016

According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, India registered 109.1 million units of smartphone shipments with a marginal 5.2-per cent annual growth in CY2016. In CY Q42016, smartphone shipments clocked 25.8 million units, registering similar volumes as that of CY Q42015, but is declining sharply by 20.3 per cent over the previous quarter. This is mainly due to a seasonal decline after an all-time high festival quarter and demonetization in the month of November, which led to relatively lower consumer sales in November and December.

“This is relatively lower than expected smartphone shipments for India owing to sluggish first half and demonetisation at the end of the year,” says Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC. “Feature phone to smartphone migration has slowed down as prices of smartphones are still quite high for a feature phone user. Also, ease of use, long battery life and durability of feature phones continue to be relevant for large numbers of users of this category,” adds Karthik.

China's Transsion Group which entered the Indian market in CY Q22016 with their “itel” brand climbed to the second spot in the overall mobile phone market with aggressive shipments of feature phones in CY Q42016. Transsion is also expected to launch a few more brands in the later half the year within the same price bands where homegrown vendors are competing.

Feature phones remain the dominant category in the total mobile phone market, with annual shipments of 136.1million units. The category declined by only 9.4-per cent in CY2016 as compared to 16.2 per cent in CY2015.

Online sales in the smartphone market remained at 31.2 per cent in CY Q42016 with Xiaomi and Lenovo accounting for more than half of the channel’s volume. Interestingly, in the marginally growing smartphone market, online smartphone shipments volume grew over 10 per cent annually in CY2016.

Samsung continued to lead the smartphone market by a large margin with 25.1-per cent share despite a 13.1-per cent sequential decline in CY Q42016. However, Samsung’s annual shipments grew 3.2 per cent in 2016 driven majorly by the J-series. The J2 continues to be a key contributor for Samsung, accounting for almost half of vendor’s total shipments in CY Q42016.

Xiaomi climbed up to the second place with 10.7-per cent share in CY Q42016 against 3.3-per cent share in the same period last year. Year-on-year shipments grew threefold, while sequential growth was 15.3 per cent in CY Q42016. Xiaomi also expanded its retail presence with the launch of an exclusive model for offline channels in CY Q42016.

Lenovo (including Motorola) slipped to third place as shipments declined 17.4 per cent sequentially in CY Q42016 and 14.5 per cent over CY Q42015. Motorola’s E3 Power and Lenovo’s K5 series accounted for almost half Lenovo’s shipments in CY Q42016.

OPPO made it to the top 5 list in CY Q42016 with 8.6-per cent share.  OPPO has been growing at a steady rate all through 2016 with the year ending at a healthy 29.9-per cent sequential growth in CY Q42016. With a strong retail presence and aggressive marketing, Vivo is yet another China-based vendor, making its debut in the Top 5. Vivo dethroned Reliance Jio from fifth place by clocking in a healthy 50.8-per cent sequential growth in CY Q42016 with 7.6-per cent vendor share.

“The feature phone segment is likely to contribute the majority of mobile phone shipments in 2017. The migration to smartphones is expected to further slow down due to the introduction of low-cost 4G feature phones and its continued relevance to its sizeable target consumer. However, replacement demand would drive most of the smartphone shipments in 2017,” says Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

“Online has become an integral channel and it is imperative that even offline-only vendors explore the possibilities to be competitive in this space while managing price parity,” adds Singh.