While every smartphone market, no matter how large or small, tends to become important for the world's top vendors when the industry as a whole hits a stagnation point, some countries and regions are always treated more seriously by the likes of Samsung, Apple, and all their major rivals.
We're talking primarily about China, India, and the US, listed here in order of the sales volume generated quarter after quarter and year after year. Given its towering size, it must therefore hurt Samsung particularly badly to not only see its Indian market share decline but its number one spot in the local vendor hierarchy seized by a competitor as well.
One big winner and a few smaller ones
If you're not very familiar with the "traditional" pecking order in the world's second-largest country by population, you might also be surprised to hear the name of the new leader. This is not Apple or even Xiaomi (which did hold first place at one point last year), but Vivo, a brand that doesn't exist in the US and that was ranked outside of India's top three this time in 2022.
Vivo managed to edge out Samsung in Q2 2023 shipments with a 16 percent slice of India's smartphone pie compared to 15.7 percent for the new silver medalist, while Realme took home the bronze after occupying the number two spot in Q2 2022.
Of these three companies, only Vivo improved its unit figures year-on-year, and the same actually goes for OnePlus, Apple, Poco, Tecno, and Infinix, which are the brands ranked sixth to tenth overall right now. In fourth and fifth places, Oppo and Xiaomi saw their sales dip as well, which undoubtedly contributed to a 2.9 percent decline for the local market as a whole.
As declines go, that's really not bad, especially if you think back to the year's opening quarter, when the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that smartphone shipments in India were down no less than 16 percent compared to the first three months of 2022.
In total, 64 million units were apparently sold in India between January and June 2023, which also represents a significant but not tragic decrease of 10 percent from the market's H1 2022 scores.
Prices are down, premium phones are up
With a 61.1 percent increase in sales, Apple can actually be content to rank a modest-sounding seventh in Q2 2023, especially when you check the rest of the IDC's latest report.
That mentions the iPhone 13 as a leader in India's growing 5G segment, which is technically dominated by Samsung, Vivo, and OnePlus as far as companies are concerned. But Apple's 2021-released non-Pro 6.1-inch handset apparently sits at the top of the individual model rankings, followed by the considerably cheaper OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite.
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The success of the latter device (and others like it) explains why the average selling price of 5G smartphones in the region is down, as is the ASP of all smartphones. That's one indicator that was still increasing in recent quarters, which means most major vendors have had to become aggressive with their promotions and discounts to get the market to stabilize.
That's definitely not bad for end users, many of whom are now keener than ever to buy "premium" phones from Apple, OnePlus, Samsung, and other brands. The premium ($600+) segment continues to grow like no other, followed by the "mid-to-high-end" ($400 to $600) category, while the mid-range segment is described as "flat" and the once-thriving sub-$200 class has started to contract, nonetheless reigning supreme over all other categories.
It's unclear if India's smartphone market will return to growth in Q3 and Q4, but even if it does, it seems unlikely that the numbers will grow at the needed pace to end the year on a positive note compared to 2022.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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