Indian Phone Market Hits New Record in 3Q2018

The International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that the Indian smartphone market reached a new record number of shipments, 42.6 million solely in the third quarter of 2018. This figure marked an annual growth of 9.1%. Plus, the smartphone market had never been at par with the feature phone market, but this 3Q2018, each market makes up 50% of the entire cell phone market.

During the festive season, cell phone shipments in 2018 third quarter were mostly done by the eTailer channel as retailers prepared for Diwali sales events. There were continual financing options from eTailers like low-cost or zero EMIs (equated monthly installments), cashback on credit/debit cards and buyback guarantees.

About this, Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Channel Research, IDC India, said that special offers from smartphone makers such as OnePlus, Xiaomi, Asus, Realme and Honor contributed to a rise of 37% in comparison with last quarter, hence the online share accounted for 39% in the third quarter.

Asus and Realme made their entry to top 5 online brands

With the Realme 2, Realme 2 Pro and Zenfone Max Pro, the two phone makers now stand among the 5 biggest online brands. Joshi added that OnePlus, in the US$400+ segment, hit its highest quarterly shipments ever, raising average selling price (ASP) of smartphones from US$156 in 3Q17 (Rs 11,218) to US$166 in 3Q18 (Rs 11,938).

Xiaomi delivered 11.7 million phones thanks to the success of Redmi Note 5 Pro, Redmi 5A, as well as Redmi 6/A/Pro. Xiaomi, with the Poco series, entered the mid-premium segment (US$300-500), aiming at upgraders by giving them the experience of a flagship with affordable price.

The third quarter of 2018 witnessed a slower growth in the offline segment, which was 6.6%. This is partly because eTailer aggressively pushed its decibel marketing, along with exclusive phones in the mass segment which prefers online rather than offline. However, the offline segment continues ruling the Indian smartphone market with over 60% market share. We cannot deny its importance and wide reach to consumers in the farthest cities and towns in India.

At an annual growth of 2.2%, the market for feature phones had unit shipments of 43.1 million in 3Q2018 only. There was a decrease in Jio Phone shipments because the vendor pays attention to clearing existing channel inventory. But the market of 2G/2.5G phones experienced some traction due to a 19.6% quarterly growth after a continuous decline in the previous two quarters. Most of this growth is attributed to leading vendors’ higher shipments, Samsung, Lava, and HMD for example.