Poco Beats Realme, OnePlus, Becomes India’s 3rd Biggest Smartphone Brand! How Did This Happen??

According to a report revealed by Counterpoint Research, Poco India Poco India is now among the top three online smartphone brands in the country, with growth driven by its budget devices.

Poco is now only left behind Xiaomi, its original parent company, and Samsung whereas it  has left behind rivals Realme and OnePlus in online volumes, the report claimed.

Poco went the independent route less than a year ago.

Anuj Sharma, Country Director of Poco India  said while adding that focus on the budget segment was the key for them in 2020 “In less than 11 months, we have introduced a powerful and clean line-up across price points keeping in mind the current spending capacities of our fans and consumers”.  

According to Shipli Jain, Research Analyst at Counterpoint, Poco with its smartphone models Poco C3 and Poco M2 are main drivers for  the new gaining momentum in the Indian market. She added that in Q3 Poco captured the 4th position in online segment shipments, and eventually rose to 3^rd in November 2020.

The Reason Behind Shifting Focus To Budget Phones

The brand shifted focus to budget phones post pandemic, after launching Poco X2, in February which was considered one of the best value-for-money phones to buy for under Rs 20,000.

In the following months, Poco C3, the Poco M2 and the Poco M2 Pro were launched offering budget and mid-range specifications at affordable prices. Budget smartphones played key role especially after many lost jobs and were confined to their homes. This is exactly when affordable and accessible technology in the form of budget smartphones became popular quickly.

Right from entertainment to e-learning, smartphone helped with various elements, hence rather than just communication, they emerged as central piece in learning from home scenarios

These are reasons why the C3 and the M2, two of its budget-oriented phones made up of two of the three most sold online phones in 2020. The brand claims that the Poco M2 in fact sold 1,30,000 units on the first day of its sale. Poco also recently celebrated the success of these variants by discounting their prices further.

The way forward and the Poco F2

Anuj Sharma shared “We have been confident about our products from the get-go, and the overwhelming consumer response validates that fans appreciate what we bring to the table. With the continuous support from our Fans and consumers, we are fairly confident about the coming year and are working towards creating new milestones in 2021”.

Where the brand focuses in 2021, remains to be see. However, Poco also recently dropped a new teaser hinting at its 2021 plans. The video mentions the Poco F2 multiple times near the end. Perhaps, we could finally see the much-awaited Poco F1 successor in 2021.