Mobile phones crossed 300 million units in India for the first time ever, with smartphones capturing almost 44 percent of the total volumes in calendar year 2017, and Samsung was the market leader in both the segments, Counterpoint Research said on Wednesday.
Samsung had 24 percent market share in 2017, compared to Xiaomi at 19 percent. Vivo with 10 percent share was third in 2017.
According to Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service, overall mobile phone shipments grew 37 percent and smartphone shipments grew 12 percent, with feature phones growing an astonishing 55 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2017.
“This surprising annual growth can be attributed to higher demand for smartphones and more so for feature phones coming from a weak quarter last year due to demonetisation and with the entry of disruptive JioPhone,” Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint, said in a statement.
The competitive landscape has change significantly in the last one year with the rise of brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo in smartphone segment and players such as Reliance Jio, Nokia HMD and iTel in feature phone segment.
“During the second half, players such as Xiaomi disrupted the status quo with an aggressive priced broader portfolio with effective channel expansion strategy. This helped Xiaomi to surpass the long-reigned market leader Samsung for the first time ever in a quarter,” said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint.