India’s smartphone shipments fell to 151.6 million units in 2022, declining by 6 per cent compared with 2021, a report has shown.

According to a Canalys report, Xiaomi was still the number one vendor for the full year.

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Samsung took the number one spot in the fourth quarter (Q4) for the first time since Q3 2017, shipping 6.7 million units for a market share of 21 per cent.

The second place went to vivo, which shipped 6.4 million units, mainly via offline channels.

“India was better positioned to weather the global downturn than other markets. But domestic consumer spending cooled in the last few months of 2022,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, an analyst at Canalys.

Even during the festive season, the domestic market suffered a fall in transactions, retail spending and electronic imports.

“In 2022, consumers already had up-to-date technology that they had bought during the pandemic, thereby delaying further purchases. This led to smartphone brands struggling with inventory management because demand was subdued,” Chaurasia added.

The Indian economy started to feel the impact of the global economic slowdown toward the end of 2022.

“We are entering 2023 with economic indicators suggesting a sluggish performance in the short term,” said Chaurasia.

But, in 2024, India is set to hold its general election and the government’s strategy will be to boost consumers’ purchasing power, even if inflation remains high.

“We expect moderate growth in the Indian smartphone market in 2023 fuelled by a replacement cycle driven by 5G devices, state government deals, smartphone penetration and the introduction of new use cases,” said Canalys.