Canalys: Samsung and Xiaomi both shipped 9.9 million smartphones in India in Q2 2018, accounting for 60% of the Indian market

The latest data from Canalys shows that in the second quarter of 2018, Samsung and Xiaomi both shipped 9.9 million smartphones in India, accounting for a total of 60% of the Indian smartphone market, up from 43% last year.

Xiaomi remained at the top of the list, with its phone sales up 106%. The company sold 3.3 million Redmi 5A, a cheaper version of the Redmi Note 5.

Samsung came in second, with sales up 47 percent, the biggest gain for the South Korean manufacturer in India since late 2015. Its most popular model was the Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro, a phone originally marketed to South Korean students that, oddly, couldn’t connect to the internet.

Both companies saw significant growth in the second quarter. Xiaomi rose even more than in the second quarter of last year, increasing its market share from 18% to 30%, while Samsung had its best quarter since 2015.

Vivo and Oppo ranked third and fourth, accounting for 11% and 10% of the market share respectively, and their mobile phone sales increased by 32% and 5% respectively.

Recently, Samsung announced that it will build the world's largest mobile phone factory in Noida, India. In June last year, Samsung announced that it would invest 49.2 billion rupees (about 710 million US dollars) to expand the production capacity of Samsung's Noida factory in India. The expanded Noida factory will be the world's largest mobile phone manufacturing factory, with an annual output of 120 million mobile phones.

Asus's phone sales also appeared to grow in India, tripling from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Apple's phone shipments fell about 50% year-on-year as the company adjusts its strategy in India.

“Apple’s reduction in the number of distributor partners and shift to a ‘brand first, volume second’ strategy will pay off for Apple as it will ensure higher margins on each device,” said Rushabh Doshi, an analyst at Canalys. “It will be important for smartphone vendors to focus in the right places, and it will be a choice between profitability and volume growth.”