4.26 Crore Smartphones Were SoId India In Q3 2018, The Highest Ever

The demand for smartphones in India is getting really high, showing that we are just as excited to upgrade our phones as other countries. We have reached a record high of phones sold in this quarter, and all of that due to the convenience that online shopping offers.

According the International Data Corporation (IDC)’s report, the number of devices sold in the 3rd quarter of 2018 reached 4.26 crores units. And that is 9.1 percent higher than the number of devices sold in the same quarter last year. And most of the sales figure is from many sales event on the e-commerce sites in preparation for India’s festive season.

It is a big milestone for the smartphone market in India. Because the sales figure of the smartphone market, for the first time, is equal to the sales figure of the feature phone market in India. And obviously, each of the market occupied 50 % of the total phone market, with 4.31 crores of feature phone devices shipping to India in the third quarter.

According to the report of IDC, the Chinese phone makers OnePlus and Xiaomi remained as the leading phone vendors in the market, with Xiaomi leading in the overall market and OnePlus leading in the Rs. 30,000+ segment. Meanwhile, Apple has still been struggling to grab a portion of market share, mostly due to their highly expensive prices, even much higher than the prices in the US.

And IDC predicts that the competitions between e-commerce have been the main factor driving the affordability for smartphones in the Indian market. Due to many frequent sale events along with good discounts, cashback systems, buyback offers and also low-cost equated monthly installments (EMIs), more people in the country can now afford to upgrade their phones.

Although the rapid growth of the online smartphone segment, physical stores still occupies a large market share, staying at around 60 percent. This is mostly due to the availability in smallest towns and cities in India, which online sellers like Amazon and Flipkart can’t offer.