Chinese Smartphones clock High Sales Despite 'BoyCott China' Sentiments
Just a few months ago (mid-June till August) Indians had given a boycott call for 'Made in China' products. Even the government appealed for the consumption of 'Made in India' products. But here is a reality check. The third-quarter figures released by market research firm Canalys suggest that the call for boycott of Made in China products, especially the smartphones made no difference. As per the data, the sale of Smartphones were up eight per cent in the July to September period compared to the year ago same period despite corona and the boycott call. For the quarter ended September 30, 2020, nearly five crore smartphones were sold. This is an all-time record for smartphone shipments in a single quarter in India.
According to the Canalys report, Xiaomi continued to dominate the Indian market and is the first in market share with sales of 13 million phones in the said quarter. At the same time, sales of Xiaomi's smartphones have increased by 9 percent year-on-year. This time, Samsung succeeded in retaining the second place by selling 12 million phones. Vivo maintained its third position with 8.8 million mobile sales. Collectively, Chinese vendors comprised 76 per cent of total smartphone shipments in the July to September quarter.
With sales of 8.7 million mobile phones, Realme registeed the highest 23 percent Year-on-Year growth. Oppo sold 6.1 million mobile phones in the third quarter with an annual growth of 6 per cent. Importantly, Apple also regained momentum in India in Q3, with double-digit growth to nearly 8 million units.
Interestingly, the festive season has just begun and e-commerce majors like Amazon and Flipkart have started offering huge discounts in online sales, which has led to smartphone makers selling record products within a few days. Till now, POCO India has sold 1 million phones in the Flipkart Big Billion Days Sale. Also, Vivo received more than 1 Lakhs pre-bookings for Vivo V20 smartphone in just six days of the launch.
