Samsung leads smartphone market, shipments plunge 50% in June qtr: Report

The smartphone market in the country reduced to half in terms of unit shipments during the April-June period, when lockdown was imposed, and is expected to recover in the second half of 2020, market research firm IDC said in a report on Friday.

Samsung led the overall market during the quarter with 24 per cent share, followed by Xiaomi and Vivo, IDC quarterly mobile phone tracker report said.

"India's smartphone market registered a sharp year-over-year (YoY) decline of 50.6 per cent in the second quarter to 18.2 million units, as the country remained under lockdown through the first half of the quarter," IDC report said.

Despite dip in sales, Chinese smartphone player Xiaomi maintained its lead in the smartphone segment with 29.4 per cent share. It was followed by Samsung with 26.3 per cent share market share, Vivo 17.5 per cent, Realme 9.8 per cent and Oppo 9.7 per cent market share during the April-June quarter.

According to the report, vendors faced major supply chain disruptions at the beginning of the quarter, and the shortage continued into the rest of the quarter as factories operated at partial capacity even after the lockdown was lifted.

Components and parts remained at the ports waiting to be cleared, especially for China-based vendors.

By June, sales increased mainly due to the pent-up demand from the lockdown period. However, purchases were mainly driven by availability rather than by choice.

"The online channel registered a high market share of 44.8 per cent but declined 39.9 per cent YoY in unit terms due to lockdown restrictions on the delivery of electronics as well as severely limited stock for most of the quarter," the report said.

IDC said that several retailers adopted new ways of marketing by reaching out to consumers through social media platforms, WhatsApp, references, etc., for doorstep demos and deliveries, as well as accepting contactless payments.

It said that the brands were forced to increase prices due to the GST hike in April and the depreciating rupee.

"The sub-$200 segment reached a high of 84 per cent share due to dampening consumer sentiment. The sub-$100 segment increased to 29 per cent share in the second quarter of 2020 from 20 per cent a year ago," the report said.

Shipments in the premium segment, priced above $500 a unit, declined by 35.4 per cent YoY in the second quarter of 2020.

"Apple continued to dominate there with a market share of 48.8 per cent, followed by Samsung and OnePlus. The iPhone 11 and iPhone XR together accounted for 28 per cent shipments in this segment with Xiaomi's Mi 10 and the OnePlus 8 series as new entrants in the second quarter of 2020," the report said.

Feature phone shipments declined by 69 per cent YoY to 10 million units during the reported quarter leading to a contribution of 35.5 per cent to the overall mobile market-- the lowest ever for this segment, the report said.