The Indian smartphone market has achieved a record 162 million shipments in 2021, representing a growth of 12 percent over 2020, according to the market research firm Canalys. After a slow start at the beginning of the year due to the Covid-19 second wave, the Indian market has recovered strongly. Xiaomi has maintained the market leadership with 9.3 million shipments in Q4 2021 and a 21 percent market share. However, Realme is steadily increasing its market share and is catching up with Samsung and Xiaomi. It gained a massive 49 percent year-on-year increase in volume in Q4, with 7.6 million units shipped. The company’s dedicated push towards 5G seems to be working out well.
Phones like Narzo 50A and Realme C11 were the top-selling phones thanks to enough inventory and supply. According to the report, Xiaomi’s annual growth declined to -22 percent in 2021. It shipped 9.3 million units in Q4 2021 (and 40.5 million units in the entire year) with a market share of 21 percent. In comparison, the company sold 12.3 million units in Q4 2020 (40.7 million units annually) and had a 27 percent market share. The share includes sub-brands like Redmi and POCO.
On the other hand, Realme sold 7.6 million units with a 17 percent market share in Q4 2021 compared to 5.1 units and 12 percent market share in Q4 2020. This suggests that Xiaomi’s dominance is slowly declining across the country and there are chances that Realme might soon overtake it.
Samsung sold 8.5 million units with a 19 percent market share in Q4 2021 compared to 9.2 million units and 21 percent share in Q4 2020. This is a slight decline of 7 percent. Vivo and OPPO (including OnePlus) have secured fourth and fifth place with 5.6 million and 4.9 million units, respectively. Other brand shipments tallied to 8.5 million units. Low-end players have gained momentum this year such as Jio Phone Next which aims to upgrade feature phone users to smartphones. Infinix and Tecno have also gained some popularity thanks to Amazon and Flipkart brand promotional campaigns.
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