Smartphone shipments surge 25 per cent in September quarter, Chinese brands make major inroads

The upcoming festive season in the country has been the catalyst behind the smartphone shipments surge this September quarter.

As per reports from the market, Indian markets recorded a whooping 35 million units, increasing by a quarter from a year ago amid increasing demand from retailers stocking up for the festive season.

Chinese smartphone players Lenovo, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo made a severe dent in the market share of top players Samsung, Micromax and Intex, according to Hong Kongbased market researcher Counterpoint Research.

The launch of commercial services by Reliance Jio Infocomm helped Reliance smartphone brand LYF move up the ladder to 4th position. 
Smartphone shipments grew at a record 21% sequentially and 25% on-year, according to preliminary data exclusively available with ET. 

The Chinese brands collectively acounted for 32% of the smartphone market, up from 27% share in the previous quarter.

Analysts at International Data Corporation (IDC) and Cybermedia Research (CMR) said the shipment numbers were in line with their own research. Both firms are yet to come out with their preliminary data for September quarter.

India's market leader Samsung and leading home-bred phone maker Micromax suffered the maximum losses in their markt shares, after both saw market share drop by 4 percentage points on-quarter, while Chinese firms Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi moved up the rankings chart to be in the top 10. Some analysts have pointed out that Samsung’s share loss is in part due to the Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

Samsung and Micromax held on to the No. 1and 2 spots, but with sharply reduced shares of 21.6% and 9.8% in the September quarter, respectively.