Xiaomi moved to the leadership position in major 50 cities of India: IDC

According to a new report by International Data Corporation's (IDC), Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi moved to the leadership position in major 50 cities of India, registering 120 percent growth in the Q32017.

The firm said that Redmi Note 4 alone contributed to more than 40 percent of the volumes and is also the highest selling model within the top 50 cities of India. Offline expansion through 'Preferred Partner' programmes and Mi Stores, further added to this growth.

Meanwhile, major 50 cities of India accounted for 50 percent of smartphone sales in Q32017 with a sizeable growth of 27 percent from the previous quarter. Tier I cities of India continue to be the key volume driver for Indian smartphone market with 29 percent sequential growth in Q32017. Bhopal, Gurgaon, and Jaipur from the Tier II cities have emerged as the fastest growing cities with each growing more than 40 percent from the previous quarter.

Mega-online sales by prominent e-tailers acted as the catalyst for the robust growth across city tiers with e-tailers now contributing around 40 percent of the market in top 50 cities of India," says Himanshu Jain, Market Analyst, IDC India. "However, the offline channel saw only average traction during the festive season," adds Jain.

Commenting on the vendor's channel expansion, Navkendar Singh, Associate Research Director, IDC India adds, "Almost all vendors have now decided to go aggressive on offline channel expansion. It will be interesting to see how they are able to match the distribution strength and retail spends by offline dominant players like Samsung, Oppo, and Vivo. Considering the huge hitherto tapped demand from smaller cities and towns, eventually, these vendors will be forced to tweak their strategies to reach out to the customers in these markets."

However report pointed out that Samsung continues to dominate in the majority of cities, thanks to its deep penetration and reach. The Samsung Galaxy J2, J7 Max, J7 Prime & J7 Nxt together make up to 50 percent volumes for the vendor.

Lenovo (including Motorola) remains at the third position growing steadily at 8 percent from the previous quarter. New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru contributing around 40 percent of its volumes with majority sales of Lenovo K6 Power, Moto E4 Plus & K6 Note.

Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo settled in fourth and fifth positions. Oppo moved to the fourth position as its models Oppo F3 and F3 Plus gained attraction from the consumers. Furthermore, the newly launched Oppo A71 added to the company' sales. Lastly, Vivo slipped down to the fifth position as the company' sales declined in the last quarter. However, the sales of the company might increase with the recently launched Vivo V7 and V7+.