Smartphone Shipments in India Cross 30 Million Units in Q3 2016: IDC

For the first time, the smartphone market in India crossed the 30 million unit shipments milestone in the third quarter of this year, the International Data Corp (IDC) reported on Tuesday.

According to IDC's Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone shipments clocked 32.3 million units in Q3 2016 with 17.5 percentage growth over the previous quarter, maintaining its traction with 11 percent Year-on-Year growth.

"This seasonal spike in third quarter can be attributed to the channel preparation for the festive season, mega online sales and early import of smartphones owing to Chinese holidays in October," said Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst (Client Devices) IDC India.

Lenovo Group, which constitutes almost a fourth of total online smartphone shipments, continues to lead online channel followed by Xiaomi.

(Also see: Lenovo and Xiaomi See Big Gains in Indian Smartphone Market in Q3 2016)

"Online share of smartphone increased to 31.6 percent with impressive 35 percent Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) growth due to strong performance by key online players primarily from China-based vendors," Karthik added.

Samsung led the Indian smartphone market with 23 percentage share with 8 percent sequential growth followed by Lenovo Group (including Motorola) with 9.6 percent share of smartphones.

Reliance Jio sustained its fifth position in the period despite a healthy 20.9 percent growth over previous quarter while Xiaomi made its debut in top 5 as its shipments doubled over previous quarter.

(Also see: Smartphone Shipments in India Grew 23 Percent in Q3, Says Counterpoint)

"Mobile vendor ecosystem is going through a multi-dimensional transition. Continuous investment from China based vendors on retail expansion and high decibel marketing has led to disruption in the plans of home-grown vendors to some extent," added Jaipal Singh, Market Analyst (Client Devices), IDC India.

Analysts said migration from feature phone to smartphone had slowed down, helping India-based vendors to maintain their dominance in overall mobile market.

4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8 percent over the previous quarter in Q3 2016.

"The rollout of Reliance Jio network has further increased the share of 4G-enabled smartphones in India. Seven out of 10 smartphone shipped in Q3 2016 were 4G-enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphone sold by eTailers were 4G," Singh added.