- Vivo overtakes Samsung in the Indian market to become the second-largest mobile seller behind another Chinese giant Xiaomi.
Xiaomi passed Samsung on to become India’s largest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter of 2017. Samsung has also become the country’s second-biggest mobile seller. However, according to the latest Canalys numbers, Vivo has overtaken Samsung in the Indian market in the first quarter of 2020 to take second place.
From January to March, the BBK-owned smartphone manufacturer Vivo shipped whooping 6.7 million smartphones, while Samsung shipped 6.3 million smartphones in the same quart. In the first quarter, Samsung experienced a shipment decline of nearly 14 percent, which slipped the company into third place. Samsung’s market share has also decreased, which was 18.9 percent.
Apart from Vivo, Realme turned out to be another big gainer on the list. The company’s year-to-year shipments increased to 200% and Realme retained the fourth position comfortably.
Calling Vivo’s “bitter-sweet” winner, Canalys analyst Madhumita Chaudary said in a statement: this quarter’s high sale was primarily due to expected stockpiles ahead of the high-profile Indian Premier League (IPL). The unplanned lockout at the end of March, however, has interrupted the plans of the vendor. With IPL delayed, and locked out most of its inventory in offline networks, when the lockout lifts, Vivo would fail to see a fast sell-through.
Xiaomi continued to retain the country’s No.1 position, shipping 10.3 million smartphones, and taking a market share of 30.6 percent. Realme also reported impressive growth in the first quarter of the year, with an annual growth rate of 200%. It delivered 3.9 million smartphones in total, compared with 1.3 million units during Q1 2019. OPPO, another BBK-owned smartphone maker, ranked fourth in the Indian smartphone industry in Q1 2020 with a market share of 10.4 percent.
The government’s declared lockdown cycle to fight COVID-19 will trigger trouble for smartphone vendors in India. Since smartphones do not fall under critical products, smartphone sales online and offline are restricted in India until May 03, 2020. Since COVID-19’s threat isn’t neutralized, smartphone manufacturers are expected to see a revenue decline in the next quarter of 2020. Smartphone firms, however, have been reaching out to the government to accept smartphones as an important product and to encourage sales online and offline. To date, the government has not made any formal announcement concerning relaxation for smartphone vendors.
