Three things that played an important role in India’s smartphone market in second quarter of 2021

The Indian smartphone market has reached 34 million units shipments witnessing 86% year-over-year (YoY), according to a report by IDC. The report explains that the early months of the quarter were on a low note but that quickly recovered in the last month as the impact on the manufacturing and logistics was less and the lockdown was also not as strict as the year before.
Here are the three key trends of the Indian smartphone market in this quarter:
Mode of shopping
According to the report, the growth of online shopping accelerated during this quarter. The online channel resulted in a record share of 51% hitting a 113% YoY growth. The offline channel was majorly impacted due to weekend curfews in many areas and partially opened markets.
Battle of chipsets
In this quarter, Qualcomm-powered smartphones dominated the space in the $200-500 (approximately Rs 15,000-Rs 38,000) segment with a 71% share, while in the sub-$200 segment, it was MediaTek chipsets that continued to lead with a share of 64%.
Rise in average selling price
The ASPs grew by 15% YoY reaching to $184 (approximately Rs 13,600). Price hikes and an ongoing shift to 5G were attributed for this rise in average selling price.
Indian smartphone market: Top 5 players
The IDC report suggests that Xiaomi led the Indian smartphone market delivering 84% YoY growth and capturing 29.2% market share. “Xiaomi commanded a 40% online market share with almost 70% of its shipments in online channels. Also, Xiaomi surpassed Samsung for the third slot in the offline channels with an 18% market share,” added the report.
Samsung registered lowest YoY growth amongst the top 10 vendors at 15% in 2Q21 as it faced supply shortages.
The next three positions were secured by BBK-owned brands — Vivo, Realme and Oppo — with 14.8%, 14.5%% and 11.6% market share respectively.