Xiaomi maintains its leadership position in smartphone market: IDC

According to a new report by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi maintained its leadership position with its highest ever shipments in a single quarter in 2Q18.

The vendor's shipments saw a growth of 10 percent sequentially and grew more than two-fold annually.

Its four smartphone models captured the top four slots in top models ranking, namely Redmi 5A, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Redmi Note 5 and Redmi 5, together accounting for 26 percent of overall smartphone shipments, IDC said.

While Samsung remained at the second position in the smartphone market with an impressive 21 percent Year-over-year (YoY) growth at the back of its newly launched "infinity" series model namely Galaxy J6.

The brand continues to see strong shipments of its successful low-end models - Galaxy J7 Nxt, Galaxy J2 (2017) and J2 (2018), thus driving overall volumes. Vivo reclaimed its 3rd position, as its shipments grew more than double from the previous quarter, registering a strong 18 percent year on year growth in 2018Q2.

OPPO slipped to 4th position, however, its shipments grew by 15 percent Year-over-year (YoY) in 2Q18 due to fewer marketing initiatives and absence of attractive offline channel schemes and Transsion continued to be at the 5th position, as its offline focused Tecno branded phones grew by 26 percent followed by itel with 14 percent QoQ growth in 2Q18.

IDC also pointed out that smartphone companies shipped a total of 33.5 million units to India during the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18), resulting in a healthy 20 percent year-over-year (YoY) growth.

IDC said the market, however, is seeing rapid consolidation at the top end.

"The top 5 vendors made up 79 percent of the smartphone market in 2Q18, marginalizing smaller brands," said Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

On feature phones, IDC highlighted Reliance Jio, the telecom operator and the main driver of the 4G feature phone segment with its JioPhone range of phones, remained the top vendor in the overall feature phone market.

However, the 4G feature phone market saw a slight decline of 10 percent QoQ with 19.0 million units. IDC believes that this drop is due to JioPhone inventory buildup from 1Q18.

Reliance Jio, as an attempt for clearing this inventory, recently introduced the "Monsoon Hungama" feature phone exchange offer and brought popular apps like WhatsApp, YouTube on JioPhone.

The 2G feature phone segment continued to decline further as local players struggle for survival in this segment and segment is losing relevance due to the aggressive push in the 4G feature phone segment by Reliance Jio.