Lenovo becomes the most used Chinese mobile brand in India: CMR

According to the new report by CMR, Lenovo becomes the most used Chinese mobile brand in India followed by itel, Gionee, Xiaomi, and Oppo.The data was collected by the cumulative installed base as of March 2017.

The report said that "Lenovo has to rejig its strategy to retain its No 1 position as other Chinese brands are speedily gaining market share in several states."

"LOVE (Lenovo-Oppo-Vivo-Xiaomi) brands are the big 4 Chinese Smarthone brands while itel is ramping up in the feature phone segment increasing the contribution of Chinese brands in the India mobile handset market," the report further said.

It pointed that LOVE brands should explore Tier II states and cities for market expansion to find out the new Smartphone users. While the online channel is supporting Metro/Tier 1 reach effectively, the offline expansion could be kicked off prioritizing the non-Metros.

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With itel into the game, the orientation of Chinese brands towards Smartphones is undergoing a change. While brands like Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have hit the Indian brands in the Smartphone space, itel is affecting the FeaturePhone dominance of Indian brands catastrophically, Faisal Kawoosa, Principal Analyst and GM, CMR.

"While marketing has its bearing on sales, Xiaomi and itel are case studies for Indian brands to learn how to optimize without spending crores on marketing," Faisal added.

Meanwhile, CMR has recently said that homegrown phone brand Micromax becomes most used Indian mobile brand, followed by Lava and Intex.The report says that MILK (Micromax-Intex-Lava-Karbonn) brands are the four big Indian brands with their dominance in most of the states.

It added that there are also some traces of localized brands like Celkon and Spice which are strong in states like Andhra Pradesh-Telangana and Rajasthan.