Smartphone shipments in India fell 48 percent in Q2 2020 to 17.3 million units, according to Canalys report.
Smartphone vendors faced a diabolical situation, dealing with both low supply due to a halt in smartphone production and diminished demand, as online and offline retailers were prohibited from selling smartphones.
Xiaomi was the market leader in India, capturing 31 percent of overall market share, shipping 5.3 million smartphone units.
Vivo maintained the second position, shipping 3.7 million units, and grew its market share to 21.3 percent from 19.9 percent in Q1 2020.
Samsung was third, with 2.9 million smartphones shipped, and also saw exports impacted as its largest manufacturing plant outside of Vietnam shut down for most of Q2.
Oppo edged out Realme to take the fourth position as it shipped 2.2 million units, compared to Realme’s 1.7 million.
Xiaomi and Oppo imported smartphones to meet pent-up demand. Xiaomi and Vivo have undertaken an O2O (offline-to-online) strategy to support their massive offline network. Online channels have seen sales decline considerably.
“While vendors witnessed a crest in sales as soon as markets opened, production facilities struggled with staffing shortages on top of new regulations around manufacturing, resulting in lower production output,” Canalys Analyst Madhumita Chaudhary said.
