Xiaomi has dominated India’s smartphone market for more than a year. However, it just lost the top spot to another Chinese company in India’s smartphone market.
BBK Electronics accounted for 30% of Indian smartphone sales in the quarter ended in June. It owns smartphone brands Oppo, Vivo, Realme and OnePlus. Consequently, the company is ahead of Xiaomi, according to a new report from tech consultancy Counterpoint Research.
Yet, Xiaomi remains the biggest single brand with 28%. It is followed by South Korea’s Samsung with 25%. But Vivo, Realme, and Oppo round up the top five with a combined 28% of the market. Then, if OnePlus (with 2%) is included, BBK comes out on top, Counterpoint said.
India Smartphone Market
The prize is enormous — India already has more than 400 million smartphone users. Moreover, the number will continue to grow. Hundreds of millions of Indians are about to discover the internet through mobile devices in the coming years. The number triggers more smartphones’ brand to come to India’s market. As shown by the report, in the second quarter of 2019 alone, the India smartphone market has increased significantly. There were 37 million shipments to the market.
Besides Chinese Brands, Apple (AAPL) has also struggled to crack the price-sensitive market. It leaves Chinese manufacturers, to grab a huge opportunity. It aims to offer more affordable smartphones to millions of Indians. The price becomes essential since most of Indians’ average annual wage is less than $2,000.
Oppo, in particular, has made several strides. The company got approval to open retail outlets in India in 2017. Moreover, Oppo recently is the main sponsor of the Indian cricket team. Another BBK brand, Vivo, sponsors the Indian Premier League cricket tournament.
A total of 37 million smartphones were shipped in India during the three months at the end of June. The highest number ever for the quarter, according to the same report.
