India becomes the second largest smartphone market in Q3 2018

According to a new report by research firm Canalys, India has overtaken the US to become the second largest smartphone market in Q3 2018.

"India overtook the US this quarter to be the second largest market, though both countries were hit by weaker seasonal performance compared with last year," it said.

"The worldwide smartphone market faces an unprecedented challenge, while its dynamics are changing rapidly at both the vendor and country level. This is providing growth opportunities for aggressive vendors with the speed to respond quickly to market changes," Canalys Research Manager Rushabh Doshi said.

The report said that worldwide smartphone shipments fell by 7.2 percent year-on-year to 348.9 million units during July-September 2018, a fourth consecutive quarter of decline, Canalys added.

"This was also the worst third quarter performance since 2015...Seven of the top 10 markets recorded year-on-year declines, caused by lengthening smartphone replacement cycles, worsening international trading conditions and competition from major Chinese vendors," it further added.

The report pointed out that Samsung led the vendor tally with 20.4 percent share in the said quarter, followed by Huawei (14.9 percent), Apple (13.4 percent), Xiaomi (9.6 percent), and Oppo (8.9 percent).

Meanwhile, three markets (among the top 10) that registered growth were Indonesia (13.2 percent increase y-o-y to 8.9 million units), Russia (11.5 percent jump y-o-y to 8.8 million units), and Germany (2.4 percent rise y-o-y to 5.5 million units).

China's smartphone shipment declined 15.2 percent y-o-y, India by 1.1 percent and the US by 0.4 percent in the September 2018 quarter.