- A new report found that India’s smartphone shipments dropped by roughly 50% in Q2 2020.
- The report also revealed the top five smartphone models shipped in the quarter.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a massive drop in global smartphone shipments in the first two quarters, and India is no different. IDC’s Q2 2020 report has found that India’s smartphone shipments dropped by a brutal 50.6% (or 18.2 million units).
The tracking firm attributed the downturn to the lockdown in Q1 2020, as well as stock shortages due to factories operating at reduced capacity and components needing to be cleared at ports.
As for the top shipping models in the quarter, IDC said a Samsung phone and four Xiaomi phones made up the top five during this period. In no particular order, they were the Samsung Galaxy M21, Redmi 8A Dual, Redmi Note 8, Redmi Note 9 Pro, Redmi 8. In fact, the tracking firm said the Redmi 8A Dual alone contributed to 33% of shipments in the sub-$100 category during Q2 2020.
Top brands in India overall?
All of the top five brands in the region saw a major drop in shipments compared to a year ago, although it seems like second-placed Samsung was the only major company in the top five to actually see an increase in shipments from Q1 to Q2. Check out the graph below:
Credit: IDC
Oppo witnessed the biggest drop in shipments of the lot (51%), with the tracker attributing this downturn to its factory remaining closed due to multiple COVID-19 cases.
“The same factory manufactures devices for Realme and OnePlus, which also faced challenges in stocks,” the IDC elaborated. Check out the top five brands below, along with their year-on-year changes:
Credit: IDC
It’s also interesting to note that the IDC says Samsung is still number one in the overall phone market when feature phones are taken into account. This is particularly pertinent with recent news that Google and Jio are working together on a “value-engineered Android-based OS” and a low-end phone. Whether this effort can successfully bridge the gap between feature phones and smartphones remains to be seen.