A couple of weeks into the third quarter, we are already getting smartphone shipment numbers for Q2 2018. Canalys has published Q2 data for the Indian market, and it brings good news for both Samsung and Xiaomi. The two companies dominated the burgeoning Indian smartphone market in the second quarter by increasing their combined market share from 43% in the same period last year to a whopping 60% this year.
Samsung put up a good show
Reversing the disappointing performance in the last few quarters in India, Samsung put up a good show and almost beat Xiaomi to reclaim the top spot. The Korean company grew 47% year-on-year by shipping 9.9 million smartphones and garnering 30.2% market share in Q2 2018, up from 25% in the same quarter last year. This impressive performance, however, was not enough for Samsung to topple Xiaomi which emerged as the largest vendor once again.
For comparison, Samsung shipped just under 7.5 million units and held 25% market share in India in Q1 this year, while Xiaomi shipped over 9 million units and captured 31% market share. Xiaomi didn’t make any huge gains in the second quarter but mostly held on to its market share to retain its place at the top of the table. It shipped around 9.9 million units and seized 30.4% market share, which represents year-on-year growth of 106% owing to the modest base. The Galaxy J2 Pro was Samsung’s best-selling model in India in the quarter with 2.3 million shipments, whereas the Redmi 5A was Xiaomi’s best-seller with an estimated 3.3 million shipments.
Vivo came in third with 3.6 million shipments and 11% market share, while Oppo settled at the fourth spot by shipping 3.1 million smartphones and grabbing 10% market share. It was a bad quarter for Samsung’s chief global rival, Apple, as the iPhone shipments were down by about 50% in India. The smartphone market in India itself grew by 22% with a total of 32.6 million shipments – a sizeable increase from the 26.8 million units in Q2 last year
“Despite Xiaomi’s growing popularity in India, Samsung will remain the first choice for consumers. Its technological prowess and supply chain mastery will continue to give it an edge over Xiaomi for the foreseeable future,” said Canalys Analyst TuanAnh Nguyen in the press release.
