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Samsung tops India's 'stellar' smartphone market once again, but competition is as tight as ever

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Jan 19, 2024, 3:17 AM

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Samsung tops India's 'stellar' smartphone market once again, but competition is as tight as ever

For the first time in an incredible 13 years, Samsung is notthe world's number one smartphone vendor. And for the first time ever, Apple is in first place as far as annual global smartphone shipments are concerned. This seismic change obviously couldn't have been possible without the ex-champion's underperformance and the new title holder's overperformance in many major markets, but that doesn't mean Apple now holds an advantage over Samsung everywhere around the world.

In fact, there's at least one huge country where iPhones are still not even among the five most popular "types" of handsets on the market. We're talking about India, which continues to be a very fruitful ground for not only Samsung but fellow Android phone makers Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme, and Oppo as well.

The industry is back!

Those are (in order) the nation's top five vendors for the year of 2023, with the hierarchy changing quite a bit from 2022, when Xiaomi won the gold medal and Samsung had to settle for silver. The region's former champ saw its sales figures drop by a worrying 15 percent year-on-year, and because Samsung only lost 1 percent, there's evidently a new sheriff in town the country.

All in all, smartphone shipments went down in India last year by 2 percent compared to the year before that, which is actually a pretty good result if you consider the market registered a decline for five consecutive quarters... prior to Q4 2023.

Sales were amazingly up by no less than 20 percent in the final three months of last year (versus the same period of 2022), and all of the top four vendors crucially contributed to that large and somewhat unexpected growth. Samsung jumped 14 percent year-on-year to retain its holiday crown, edging out Xiaomi, which actually posted an even more impressive surge of 31 percent.

In third place, Vivo didn't exactly set the nation on fire with its fairly modest 10 percent growth, while Realme absolutely exploded from 2.7 to 4.5 million unit shipments to keep Oppo at bay. Going forward, India's "stellar" smartphone market is expected to continue growing, although probably not at the same pace as in Q4 2023. But the local industry is certainly bouncing back after a period of struggles, and in addition to these leading Android smartphone brands, that's also thanks to Apple.

Premium phones are the bomb!

Yes, iPhones are slowly but steadily improving their mass appeal in the region, dominating the fast-growing and hugely profitable premium market segment. Just like pretty much everywhere else around the world (perhaps with the worthy exception of China), the iPhone 15 series has gotten off to a very strong start at the Indian box-office, although iPhone 14 and even iPhone 13 models remain highly successful as well, especially as their price points continue to drop.

Overall, Apple was apparently responsible for 7 percent of Q4 2023 smartphone sales in India, which is not a number that will send shivers down the spines of many Samsung top executives, but it's definitely something the Cupertino-based tech giant can continue to build on in the coming years.

The local premium market segment, mind you, was also boosted at the end of the year by Samsung's successful Galaxy S23 FE launch, as well as various festive deals and promotions that helped the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra maintain their appeal.

Canalys is not ready to share that segment's full and detailed numbers for either Q4 or 2023 as a whole, but premium smartphones are projected to continue growing in popularity in India, thus helping Apple and Samsung (but also other brands) to keep their profit margins nice and chunky.

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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'.