According to a report by CyberMedia Research (CMR), India’s 5G smartphone shipment share rose to 57 per cent in Q3 2023, marking a 78 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth. Samsung led the Indian 5G smartphone market with a 23 per cent market share, followed by Vivo at 16 per cent. While India’s smartphone market remained flat YoY, the overall mobile market saw a slight 1 per cent decline.
Commenting on the findings, Shipra Sinha, analyst, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, said, “In the run-up to the festive season, the India smartphone market showed signs of recovery, on the back of a slew of new smartphone launches and attractive deals. The 5G smartphone segment continued to headline the market growth, with 44 new launches, and a 57 per cent market share. Foldable smartphones experienced remarkable growth, doubling YoY. Furthermore, 4G feature phones showed tremendous growth, driven by Aspirational India and the demand for companion devices in urban India.”
As per the report, the value-for-money smartphone segment (Rs 7,000- 25,000) constituted the largest share at 69 per cent. Notably, out of the 59 smartphones launched in Q3 2023, a significant 36 were part of this segment. Despite this, its shipments decreased by 11 per cent YoY. The affordable smartphone segment (<Rs 7,000) experienced substantial growth, surging by 78 per cent YoY. This growth was driven by models like Redmi A2, Poco C50, and Itel A27, collectively capturing a 50 per cent market share. The premium segment (Rs 25,000-50,000) witnessed an 11 per cent YoY growth. Additionally, the super-premium smartphone segment (Rs 50,000-100,000) and the uber premium segment (>Rs 100,000) experienced outstanding YoY growth rates of 87 per cent and 136 per cent, respectively.
The report finds that Samsung (17 per cent), Xiaomi (17 per cent) and Vivo (15 per cent) captured the top three spots in the smartphone leaderboard in Q3 2023, followed by Realme (14 per cent) and OPPO (10 per cent).
Further, according to the report, the 4G feature phone shipments experienced an exceptional 300 per cent YoY growth during the quarter. This growth was driven significantly by JioBharat K1 Karbonn and JioBharat V2 collectively capturing 63 per cent market share. The overall feature phone market saw a decline of 6 per cent YoY. Notably, 2G feature phone shipments decreased by 27 per cent YoY.
CMR estimates a slight overall decline of 1-2 per cent in smartphone shipments for the entire 2023. The firm estimates the overall smartphone shipments for the entire 2024 to potentially grow by 8-9 per cent, with 5G shipments anticipated to grow by over 40 per cent YoY.
Meanwhile, Menka Kumari, analyst, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, said “The smartphone market is showing encouraging signs of stabilisation, with relatively lesser headwinds as we look forward to 2024 and beyond. Compared to a year ago, smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will exit 2023 with better inventory levels. As we move forward, OEMs will look to maintain a leaner product portfolio, backed by aggressive marketing to gain market share.”
