India’s smartphone market, which is the second largest in the world (and one of the few markets that continues to show strong growth each quarter), is currently a key battleground for a number of phone makers from China, Taiwan, and South Korea. And increasingly, Chinese phone makers are winning. From a report: Leading the charge is Xiaomi, which last year ended Samsung’s five-year-streak as the top phone vendor in the nation. The period between April and June of this year was the fourth consecutive quarter for Xiaomi as the top vendor in India, according to IDC. Xiaomi (29.7 percent market share as of Q2) has aggressively undercut the offerings of its rivals by selling inexpensive but high-quality smartphones in India. A spokesperson for the company said that India is currently its most important market. In the second quarter of this year, four of the top five smartphone makers were Chinese, according to IDC. In addition to Xiaomi, that number includes Oppo (7.6 percent market share), Vivo (12.6 percent), and Transsion (5 percent). Together with other Chinese phone makers such as Lenovo, the group held two-thirds of the local smartphone market in the second quarter, IDC said in a report published last month. Less than three years ago, the aggregate market share of these companies was under 15 percent in India. […] Indian smartphone makers Micromax, Karbonn Mobile, Lava, and others together held about 46 percent of the market in early 2016. Per the report, Chinese players were originally the design and hardware (ODM) partners of Indian smartphone vendors. They saw an opportunity in India, and cut the middlemen — Indian vendors — and started selling phones themselves. Their offerings were better and more cost-effective. Interestingly, even in the premium smartphone segment — phones priced at $400 or higher — OnePlus, a Chinese phone manufacturer, outperformed Samsung and Apple in India in the most recent quarter.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot