Indian smartphone market grew 23% in Jan-Mar 2021: Counterpoint report

Buoyed by pent-up demand, the local smartphone market grew by a whopping 23 per cent over a year earlier in the January-March quarter. As a result, shipment of smartphones touched 38 million units – unprecedented for the quarter – a report by analyst firm Counterpoint Research showed.

“Continuing with its stellar run, India’s smartphone market registered a third consecutive quarter of record shipments in the first quarter of 2021, riding on pent-up demand. consumer confidence also increased due to the beginning of a vaccination drive in the country”, said Prachis Singh, analyst at Counterpoint.

With a 14 per cent rise in shipment of feature phones during the period, the overall handset market registered 19 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) growth. Strong shipment numbers of Reliance’s JioPhone drove the feature phones market, while Chinese vendor Itel led the market with a 21 per cent share.

In the smartphone space, market leader Xiaomi witnessed a strong demand for its handsets and had to expand local sourcing capacity by partnering with two Chinese manufacturers — BYD and DBG. Rival Samsung, which held the second spot, registered 52 per cent growth in shipment over the corresponding quarter last year. Its sales were driven by new launches in the budget segment.

Analysts, however, are now weary of the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic in its second wave, and its impact on the market in the April-June quarter. According to Singh, the superior growth in the March quarter might not sustain in the coming days. “These (March quarter) numbers should be taken with a caution as a second and more virulent wave of Covid-19 is currently on in the country. That is likely to impact the coming quarters. The consumer demand will take a hit due to the ongoing Covid-19 wave and subsequent lockdowns,” said Singh.

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