Indian smartphone shipments reached an all-time high in Q3, as Chinese vendors increased their share and consumers turned to online channels, Canalys reported.

Shipments increased 8 per cent year-on-year to 50 million units.

Research analyst Varun Kannan said Canalys had yet to see a significant impact from ongoing tension between India and China on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Chinese vendors accounted for 76 per cent of shipments in the quarter, compared with 74 per cent in Q3 2019.

But Kannan noted the tensions had caused Chinese brands to be more conservative, reducing their marketing spend and playing-up their role in India’s economic future.

Ranking
Xiaomi remained market leader, with shipments up 9 per cent to 13.1 million units. Samsung moved to second place on 10.2 million, pushing Vivo to third (8.8 million). Realme (8.7 million) and Oppo (6.1 million) rounded out the top-five.

Canalys noted Apple regained momentum, with double-digit growth to nearly 800,000 after opening an online store.

Analyst Adwait Mardikar said the government “created the perfect atmosphere for sustained growth” by gradually easing Covid-19 (coronavirus) lockdown conditions.

“While almost all vendors have shown positive shipment growth, the true winners are the online channels, which have been buoyed with a huge influx of devices ahead of the festive season.”

“As much of India remains physically disconnected, the smartphone has increasingly become a necessity not only for social connection, but also for entertainment, education, banking, payment and more,” he added.