Expect growth in Indian smartphone segment to continue, says Xiaomi

Chinese tech major Xiaomi on Wednesday said it expects Indian smartphone market to continue its growth trajectory even amid concerns of slowdown in other sectors like auto.

“We hear about all that (slowdown) at a macro level. We rely on third-party data to assess where the market is heading and that shows there has been growth in the first half of the year, the market has not de-grown and isn’t stagnant. We expect growth to continue in the segment,” Xiaomi India Head of Categories and Online Sales Raghu Reddy said.

He was responding to a query on whether smartphone market could see a slowdown like other sectors such as auto.

Reddy said the demand in the smartphone market is coming from both—feature phone users migrating to smartphones and existing users upgrading to higher-priced devices.

This has helped the average selling price of smartphones in the country to move up, he noted.

According to research firm IDC, smartphone shipment in India grew 7.1 per cent year-on-year during the January-March quarter and 9.9 per cent in the April-June quarter, totalling about 69 million units.

Xiaomi, which has been at the numero uno position in terms of shipment in the Indian smartphone market for eight consecutive quarters, had a 28.3 per cent share in the June 2019 quarter, as per IDC.

Of the 36.9 million smartphones shipped in June 2019 quarter, Samsung had a share of 25.3 per cent. This was followed by Vivo (15.1 per cent), Oppo (9.7 per cent), Realme (7.7 per cent) and others.

Xiaomi’s latest Android One smartphone named as Mi A3 was launched in India on Wednesday. The key features on the Xiaomi Mi A3 include a waterdrop-style notch, triple rear camera setup, Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC and an in-display fingerprint scanner. The smartphone will be made available for sale on Amazon India and Mi.com both.

The 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of Xiaomi Mi A3 costs Rs 12,999. The price of 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant of Xiaomi Mi A3 has been set at Rs 15,999. The smartphone will go on sale via Amazon India, Mi.com and Mi Home stores from 12pm (IST) on August 23. It will be made available soon via offline stores. The smartphone will be made available in Not Just Blue, More Than White and Kind of Gray colour options.

The 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant of Xiaomi Mi A3 costs Rs 12,999. The price of 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant of Xiaomi Mi A3 has been set at Rs 15,999. The smartphone will go on sale via Amazon India, Mi.com and Mi Home stores from 12pm (IST) on August 23. It will be made available soon via offline stores. The smartphone will be made available in Not Just Blue, More Than White and Kind of Gray colour options.

(With inputs from PTI)