According to a report by CMR, the overall feature phone shipments in India recorded a marginal year-on-year (YoY) growth of 2 per cent in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2020. This growth was led by Transsion Group’s Itel with a market share of 20 per cent, followed by Samsung with 19 per cent share.
While shipment of Samsung and Nokia’s grew by 47 per cent and 7 per cent YoY, respectively, Itel and Lava shipments witnessed a minimal decline of 2 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.
Transsion Group brands (Itel, Infinix, and Tecno) combined feature phone and smartphone shipments grew 32 per cent during the period. Under this, Itel led the growth chart with a remarkable 260 per cent YoY growth in smartphone shipments, followed by Tecno and Infinix at 161 per cent and 81 per cent growth respecitvely. Further, Nokia, grew 7 per cent YoY to gain a market share of 17 per cent while Karbonn declined 10 per cent and with a 5 per cent market. Despite its uncertain future, LG shipments recorded an exceptional 210 per cent YoY growth. Further, Micromax re-entered the smartphone market and recorded a growth of 75 per cent and is expected to increase its market share along with Lava in the smartphone market in 2021.
In the smartphone segment, the report added that the global smartphone shipments exceeded 100 million units for the first time in H2 2020. This mainly resulted from smartphone brands launching impressive smartphones, marketing aggressively, providing attractive offers as well as discounts.
In India, smartphone market grew 20 per cent YoY in Q4 2020, led by Xiaomi with a market share of 27 per cent followed by Samsung with a share of 20 per cent and followed Vivo at 14 per cent. Further, the market share for Realme and Oppo stood at 11 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. According to the report, Xiaomi’s growth was driven by the Redmi 9 and 9A smartphone together, having captured 27 per cent of its overall shipments. While Poco had a market share of 6 per cent during the quarter. While, Samsung’s affordable model, Galaxy M01 Core along with A21S and A51 models contributed more than 45 per cent of its smartphone shipments. Further, Vivo declined by 25 per cent during the period. The Vivo Y20 series and Y1s contributed almost 40 per cent of its overall shipments. While, Realme grew at 50 per cent, mostly driven by the realme C series, including the Realme C11, Realme C12, and Narzo 20 series. Oppo grew 14 per cent and overtook Realme in the quarter.
Further, the report added that shipments-wise OnePlus recorded a significant growth of 177 per cent on-year and the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus Nord accounted for 76 per cent of its Q4 shipments. Apple led the smartphone market accounting for 90 per cent of all the eSIM-enabled smartphones in CY2020. In 2020, 5G shipments continued to gain strength, and OnePlus was the highest contributor in the 5G smartphone segment capturing 58 per cent market share followed by Apple at 20 per cent.
