In an interesting study conducted by CMR, it was found that more and more Indians are now ditching Indian brands, and going for Chinese smartphone brands in India.
The report clearly mentions the fact that Indian smartphone brands are losing the battle against Chinese companies.
Will 2018 prove to the final nail in the coffin for Indian smartphone brands?
Chinese Brands Are Preferred Over Indian Brands
Cybermedia Research, one of the most prominent research groups in India has conducted an interesting study on the buying behavior of Indians, when it comes to smartphones.
The research throws up some interesting insights.
During Q2 of 2018, the study found that 72% of Indians have replaced their Indian smartphone brand, with a Chinese brand.
Kanika Jain, Manager, New Initiatives said, “Consumers continue to swap their existing Smartphones with the new ones offered by Chinese brands resulting in fast erosion of total installed base of the local Indian brands.”
In fact, 59% of all smartphones sold during this period in India, were actually upgrades or replacements of existing smartphones. And majority of them went with Chinese brands.
Which Chinese Brands Are The Top Favourite?
Out of 72% users who ditched their Indian smartphone brands, almost half or 36.9% of users opted for Xiaomi brand, when it comes to choosing a new smartphone.
17.8% opted for Vivo, while 16.3% chose Oppo brand for their new phone.
Which Indian Brands Are Losing The Battle?
Micromax, one of the top selling smartphone brand some years back, is the brand which is losing big time.
As per CMR report, Micromax lost 41.2% of marketshare during Q2 of 2018, as their users are now opting for Chinese smartphones with better features.
Intex lost 11.6% of their users, while Karbonn lost 5.3% market share.
The loss of these Indian smartphone brand is a direct gain for Chinese brands.
As per Kanika, this is a ‘grave situation’ for Indian brands, as they are not able to cope with the innovation and price point which Chinese brands are bringing to India.
What is The Future Now?
Xiaomi is no doubt the biggest smartphone brand in India, as they have perfectly captured the Rs 10,00o to Rs 20,000 market.
Whereas OnePlus is dominating the premium smartphone niche; and in between Samsung and Apple are battling out.
On the other hand, Jio too has disrupted the sub-Rs3000 market with innovative feature phones, which provide 4G VoLTE services.
This leaves very little for Indian brands.
However, 41% of the smartphones sold in India during Q2 2018 were brand new, and were not replacements or upgrades, and it is this sweet spot which Indian brands should target.
No doubt innovation, and uniqueness are the keywords here, and without them, they won’t be able to survive for long.
How do you think Indian smartphone brands should survive? Do let us know by commenting right here!