Counterpoint Research said that the Indian smartphone market received its highest-ever shipments in 2021.
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Market Resilience
Despite global issues such as semiconductor chip shortage and fuel price hikes resulting in supply disruptions, India recorded 169 million shipments.
This is an 11% hike from 2020 when the figure stood at 152 million, which in turn was a 4% decline from 2019.
The record shipment amount in 2021 can be explained by increased adoption and demand for 5G smartphones alone which contributed to about 17% of the overall shipments.
5G Phones: Affordability And Popularity
Original Equipment Makers or OEMs shipped 6x more 5G smartphones in India in 2021 than in 2020 when it accounted for only 3% of total smartphone shipments.
5G phones have become more accessible, thanks to tight competition among OEMs and availability of cheaper 5G chipsets. all of which encourage brands to push more 5G devices into the market.
Prices of entry-level 5G devices have reduced by 40% in the last 6 months, which has encouraged mass adoption by the public.
5G Coming Soon To India
As 5G phones have been getting more affordable, Counterpoint analysts said that they expect the market growth to continue by double digits.
Mid-to-high-end 5G smartphones will be a big contributor to this growth.
The hype over 5G smartphones comes ahead of the rollout of 5G services in India by the end of 2022.
Select cities will get the first taste, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurugram, Ahmedabad and Pune.
The government might award frequencies for the provision of 5G services in April or May 2022.
Mid range smartphones in the Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 bracket accounted for 47%- the maximum market share.
Budget smartphones under Rs 10,000 had a market share of 30%.
The higher range phones over Rs 30,000 had the least market share of 10%.
World’s Top 5 Smartphone Brands
The global smartphone market in 2021 was dominated by Samsung with a market share of 18.9%.
In second place is Apple at 17.2% and coming in third is Xiaomi at 13.5%.
Rounding out the top five are Oppo (#4) at 11.4%, then Vivo (#5) at 9.6%.
Record Year For The Top 5
Apple sold the most number of its iPhones in a year i. e. 2021.
Xiaomi entered the top 3 global smartphone OEMs for the first time by annual sales.
Oppo and Vivo gained rapid growth, achieving their highest ever market shares globally in a single year.