- Sales of Chinese Smartphone Brands went unaffected in the last two days despite ongoing anti-china sentiments among consumers in India.
Amid Ongoing Corona Pandemic, India is going through anti-china sentiment and people are asking for bans on Chinese apps. We analyze the biggest area where China dominates in India that is the smartphone market. Here are the results of Q1 2020.
Indian smartphone shipments grew a modest 4% YoY to reach a little over 31 Million units in Q1 2020, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. January and February shipments grew annually due to new launches and aggressive promotions. However, a steep annual decline in March (-19%) due to the COVID-19 outbreak restricted overall quarter growth to just 4%
Here is the growth of Chinese Smartphone Brands In These three months-
- Xiaomi leads India’s smartphone industry to hit its highest market share since Q1 2018 with a 6 percent youth rise in Q1 2020. This was powered by the powerful success of their Redmi Note 8 series. Offline growth, customer focus, and competitive pricing strategies have led to Xiaomi expanding its user base.
- Powered by high-performance Y series models another Chinese brand Vivo grew 40 percent in Q1 2020. Vivo has left the quarter with a low inventory that allows the brand to have a strong business planning command and new launches. But the launch of its flagship series V was delayed because of Corona.
- Another BBK Owned Brand OPPO shipments grew by 83 percent in Q1 2020 due to demand for their budget segment smartphones, A5 2020, and A5s, as well as good results in the offline segment for the recently launched A31 and A9 2020.
- In Q1 2020, Realme owned BBK Electronics grew 119 percent YoY led by the newly released 5i and C3. It was the first company to introduce a 5G-enabled phone (Realme X50 Pro 5G) on the Indian market.

With such negative sentiment going among the customers these brands are taking Social Media to establish their Indianess.
- Chinese smartphone manufacturer, CEO Realme India is proud of the Indian roots of the company. Madhav Seth, the Chinese BBK Electronics company’s CEO, said the company runs yesterday as much in a YouTube show. “I can proudly say that Realme is an Indian startup, now a global multinational company,” Seth said in the video. BBK Electronics also owns the Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus smartphone brands.
- Poco, which is an offshoot of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, published a tweet on similar lines on June 3. “With a vision of serving Indian customers, @IndiaPoco was born in Delhi, India two years ago,” the company said on the post. Poco was originally a sub-brand of Xiaomi India but now operates independently. The tweet goes on to say how the company “crafted for India” the Make In India using products and services.
- During the recent launch of Xiaomi’s new laptop India Host, Manu Jain, said 99 percent of Xiaomi ‘s phones are manufactured in India, as are most of their Smart TVs. The company leads the smartphone market in India.
Despite the border tension flaring up and #BoycottChineseProducts trending on social media, there was no palpable impact on sales of Chinese smartphone and electronics brands on the Indian market Tuesday and Wednesday.
Four leading retail chains for cellphones and electronics said consumer sentiments towards Chinese brands have not changed, as they are perceived to be of good quality and value for money.
India’s biggest smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi, sold out laptops that it released on its Mi.com website in India on Wednesday. An industry executive said Tuesday Vivo undertook a dipstick consumer study through its 30,000-strong executives on the shop floor who said there was no impact on buying patterns or consumer sentiment.