Chinese handset vendors consolidated their grip on India’s smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2019, with four of the top five posting significant market share gains, as ASPs reached an all-time high, data from IDC showed.

Smartphone shipments increased 5.5 per cent year-on-year to 36.9 million units. ASP rose to $172, as shipments in the $200 to $300 range grew 71.9 per cent. Xiaomi held its lead with a 29 per cent market share, up from 26.4 per cent in Q4 2018, with shipments of 10.7 million units 15.9 per cent higher.

Vivo took second from Samsung with an 18.8 per cent share (up from 10.1 per cent), as shipments jumped 96.5 per cent to 6.9 million units. Samsung’s shipments dropped 15.4 per cent to 5.7 million for a 15.5 per cent share.

Oppo and Realme’s shares rose by about 5 percentage points to 13 per cent and 12.8 per cent, respectively, after recording sharp increases in shipments to 4.8 million and 4.7 million units.

Chinese companies’ share grew to 73.6 per cent from 51.7 per cent in Q4 2018.

For the full year, smartphone shipments rose 8 per cent to 152.5 million units. The overall mobile phone market, however, declined 12.2 per cent to 282.9 million units, due to a drop in 4G feature phones.

Navkendar Singh, research director at IDC India, expects the country’s smartphone market to book single-digit growth in 2020, as organic expansion becomes challenging with increasing replacement cycles.