Samsung and Xiaomi now control almost half of the Indian smartphone market

The Indian smartphone market is growing at an impressive rate, and a direct consequence of this trend is the fact that India managed to leave the US behind for the first time ever in this field. Although Samsung controls almost a quarter of the entire Indian smartphone market, the growth has been driven by the excellent sales recorded by Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo.

A recent report by Counterpoint's Market Monitor service, the Indian handset market reached an all-time high volume of more than 84 million units, also including the feature phones sector, currently led by Samsung with a share of 23 percent, up from 21 percent in the same period of 2016. In the smartphone sector, Samsung had the same market share of 23 percent in the third quarter of 2016 and 2017.

On the other hand, the Chinese trio that follows the South Korean giant recorded the following results:

• Xiaomi - 6 percent in Q3 2016, up to 22 percent in Q3 2017  
• Vivo - 5 percent in Q3 2016, up to 9 percent in Q3 2017
• Oppo - 4 percent in Q3 2016, up to 8 percent in Q3 2017

At last, it looks like Lenovo's Indian branch is in trouble these days since the brand went down from 9 percent in Q3 2016 to 7 percent in the same period of 2017. However, the "others" category lost a lot in this period, dropping from 53 percent all the way to 31 percent.

In the feature phone sector, a brand worth being mentioned is Nokia. Back in Q3 2016, this name was not present in India yet. One year later, it already controls 8 percent of the market and might soon overtake the local brand Micromax.

The next year will be very interesting for both Xiaomi and Samsung in India. We expect the South Korean giant to lose a small share of its slice, while Xiaomi's growth should slow down. We also think that Huawei and Nokia (or at least one of them) might grab a noticeable share of the Indian smartphone market in the year to come.