India mobile sales flat in Q1 on COVID-19 pandemic fears

The COVID-19 pandemic may have resulted in plummeting mobile phone sales across the world, however, India may have been an outlier in this regard. This is what the data culled from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) quarterly mobile phone tracker shows. India saw a relatively flat opening quarter with year-over-year (YoY) growth of 1.5% to 32.5 million units in the quarter. India was the only country among the top three to see any growth, as both China and US markets saw a huge decline of -20.3% and -16% year-on-year.

“The online channel grew by 9% YoY in Q1 FY20 due to multiple new launches, attractive discounts, cashback offers, and affordability schemes registering a share of 43%. On the other hand, offline channel shipments declined by 3.5% YoY, owing to fewer consumer offers, fewer retail walk-ins, and a more aggressive portfolio available on e-Tailer platforms across leading brands,” said Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

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The sub-$200 segments continued to dominate, accounting for 76.2% of the market. The mid-range segment of $200<300 grew 87.4% with its share doubling to 18.2%, mainly due to the Samsung Galaxy A51, Vivo S1 pro/S1, and Redmi Note 8 Pro.

In the premium ($500+) segment, Apple continued to dominate with a market share of 62.7%, followed by Samsung and OnePlus.

The $700 to $1000 segment registered a high growth as well, as shipments doubled YoY, with the iPhone 11 accounting for 68% of shipments in this price segment.

The feature phone segment, which still accounted for 41.2% of the overall mobile phone market in India, continued to decline YoY by (-29.4%) with shipments of 22.8 million units in Q1 FY20.

Xiaomi continued to lead in the overall mobile phone market for the second consecutive quarter with a market share of 18.3%, followed closely by Samsung and Vivo.

Navkendar Singh, Research Director, Client Devices & IPDS, IDC India mentions, “COVID-19 will have a substantial impact on the Indian mobile phone market in 2020, with potential supply chain disruptions and slower-than-expected consumer demand for the next few quarters. IDC expects the India mobile phone market to follow a U-shaped recovery from Q3 FY20 onwards.