Xiaomi Leads as Indian Smartphone Shipments Near 145 Million in Pandemic-Hit 2020: Canalys

Xiaomi leads as the Indian smartphone market finished 2020 with nearly 145 million units shipped compared to the 148 million smartphones shipped in 2019, a new Canalys report says. The slight downfall of two percent was due to the coronavirus-induced lockdowns in the early part of the year, but the second half more than recovered for the loss with the third quarter driving strong shipments. The pandemic pushed people to start working online and taking online classes, driving people to purchase smartphones. Xiaomi remained at the top of the table with 28 percent market share and 40.7 million units shipped in 2020.

Canalys says that Chinese vendors like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo saw little impact due to the Indo-China political headwind and they collectively contributed to about 77 percent of total shipments in 2020, against 72 percent in 2019. While Xiaomi sits in the lead position, its year-over-year shipments reportedly saw an annual decline of five percent. However, Xiaomi still has a significant lead over Samsung that comes in second after shipping 28.6 million units in 2020, winning 20 percent of the market share.

Vivo comes in third with 26.9 million units shipped, raking in 19 percent market share, the Canalys report says. Realme saw the most amount of growth with 19.5 million units shipped and 13 percent market share achieved in 2020. The company saw an annual growth of 24 percent, Canalys says. This is similar to what Counterpoint reported just a day ago, with Realme seeing the highest growth in 2020. Oppo saw an annual growth of eight percent with 17.3 million shipments and 12 percent market share in 2020.

In the last quarter of 2020, smartphone shipments in India were reported to be 43.9 million units, amounting to a growth of 13 percent, according to Canalys. Xiaomi shipped 12 million units and grabbed 27 percent market share in the last quarter. Samsung finished second with 9.2 million shipments, growing its market share from 20 percent in Q3 to 21 percent in Q4. Vivo remained in third place in India, shipping 7.7 million smartphones into the country.

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