CMR: India's 5G smartphone shipments to grow 14% year-on-year in Q1 2023

According to a report released by CMR, the shipment share of 5G smartphones in India has grown to 41%, and 5G smartphone shipments have increased by 14% year-on-year. The momentum of 5G smartphones in India continued until the first quarter of 2023, with a total of 34 new 5G phones launched. In the Indian 5G smartphone market, Samsung leads with a 23% market share, followed by Apple with a 17% market share. In the first quarter of 2023, shipments in the Indian smartphone market fell 21% year-on-year, while India's overall mobile market fell 20% year-on-year.

Smartphone Industry

Low-end smartphone shipments fell 38% YoY, mid-range smartphone shipments fell 25% YoY, and high-end smartphone shipments fell 23%. Ultra-premium smartphone (INR 50,000-1,00,000) and top premium smartphone (greater than INR 1,00,000) shipments grew 96% and 208% YoY, respectively.

Samsung (20%), Vivo (17%) and Xiaomi (16%) accounted for the top three positions in the Indian smartphone rankings in the first quarter of 2023, followed by OPPO (10%) and Realme (9%).

Feature Phones

Shipments of 2G and 4G feature phones fell 15% and 35% year-on-year, respectively.

Key highlights of the smartphone market in the first quarter of 2023

Samsung Electronics maintained its top position in the Indian smartphone market with a 20% market share. It is also the leader in the 5G smartphone market with a 23% share, and its 5G shipments increased by 16% year-on-year.

Vivo ranked second with a market share of 17% thanks to its strong channel marketing. Its 5G smartphone models vivo Y75 5G, vivo T1 and vivo V23E accounted for 42% of 5G shipments.

Xiaomi slipped to third place in the smartphone rankings with a 16% share. Xiaomi's sub-brand Poco saw a 4% year-on-year decline in shipments.

OPPO ranked fourth with a market share of 10%.

Realme ranked fifth with a 9% market share and its shipments fell 55% year-on-year.

OnePlus smartphone shipments increased 39% year-on-year.

In the first quarter of 2023, Apple's share of the Indian smartphone market grew by 7%, with shipments increasing by a significant 67% year-on-year.

The overall (smartphone + feature phone) shipments of Transsion Group’s brands (Itel, Infinix and Tecno) grew 9% year-on-year.

Future Market Outlook

According to CMR estimates, the Indian mobile phone market is expected to maintain moderate growth, with slow growth in the second quarter of 2023. Full-year smartphone shipment growth is expected to be in the single digit.