New Delhi/Gurugram, 16 May 2019:  According to CMR’s India Mobile Handset Market Review Report for Q1 2019, mobile handset shipments in India recorded a 25% YoY decline in 1Q 2019. Feature phone shipments saw a noticeable decline of around 49%, while smartphones recorded a healthy 10% growth.

4G contributed to 66%, while 2G accounted for 34% of the mobile handset shipments.

According to Narinder Kumar, Lead Analyst- Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, “The overall market decline was on expected lines for Q1 2019. The above industry average stock build-up in the end of previous quarter resulted in lower shipments. Also, the recent change in eCommerce rules in India impacted the online dependent players.”

During Q1 2019, Samsung topped the overall mobile handset leaderboard with a 22% market share, followed by Xiaomi with 16% and LYF at 13%.

Source: CMR Mobile Handset Market Review Report, Q1 2019

Chinese brands continued to dominate the mobile handset leaderboard, while market share of Indian brands dipped to 30% during Q1 2019.

Smartphone Segment

In smartphones, Xiaomi (30%) and Samsung (27%) were major brands followed by Vivo (12%), Oppo (7%) and closely followed by Realme.

According to Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, “It is interesting to note that shipments of top 5 smartphone players accounted for 83% of total smartphone shipments in Q1 2019. The hypercompetitive nature of the smartphone market saw intense competition resulting in sequential decline by 10-12% for both Xiaomi and Samsung shipments.”

The Indian smartphone market saw the affordable smartphone segment (INR 7000-INR 25000) growing by 75%, while the value for money segment (<INR 7000) experienced a 22% growth. The premium segment (INR 25001-50000) grew at a flat 2.4% YoY.

Here are some key highlights from the smartphone market (by price segment) for Q1 2019:

• Xiaomi continued to rule the Value for Money (<INR 7000) segment with a 41% market share, with its Xiaomi Redmi 6A contributing a healthy 35% market share. During Q1 2019, Xiaomi had two notable new launches, including the Redmi Note 7 series and the Redmi Go.
• In the affordable smartphone (INR 7000-25000) segment, Samsung secured a 31% market share, while Xiaomi came close with a 28% market share.
• OnePlus had a 43% market share in the premium segment (INR 25001-50000).
• The super-premium segment (INR 50001-100000) saw Samsung taking top honours during Q1 2019 with a 80% market share. Samsung Galaxy S10 was the most shipped super-premium smartphone with a 38% market share.
• The uber-premium segment (>INR 100000) saw Samsung and Apple split honors equally. Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Plus had a 50% market share.

Featurephone Segment

Feature phones still constitute for almost half of the overall mobile handset shipments in the India market.  There was a sharp decline of almost 50% YoY, due to channel inventory and dip in 4G-enabled and 2G feature phones.

For 2G feature phones, major players were Samsung (20%), Lava (15%) and Nokia (12%)

Future Outlook

“We anticipate the market demand to pick-up in upcoming quarters, with many new exciting launches lined-up from all major brands, including Xiaomi, Oppo and Realme. Growth in entry level smartphone market is expected to be fueled by new launches of Xiaomi (Redmi Go) and Samsung (J2 Core) especially beyond tier 1 cities,” added Narinder.

Prabhu further added, “The dominant thread for CY2019 would be the return to prominence of offline channels. All major brands that enjoyed an online-exclusive growth, would now further expand aggressively. The battleground for market dominance for mobile handset players would shift to India’s hinterland. At the same time, the focus on online channels would continue for smartphone brands.”