While Apple has (almost) no reason to be happy with its latest quarterly smartphone shipment figures in the US and Samsung can be mighty proud with its achievements in the same timeframe and the same key global market, the two mobile industry heavyweights can essentially claim similarly important victories in an equally meaningful region today.
If you ask me, all three of the aforementioned brands deserve their laurels and all the glory corresponding with their respective regional titles.
Apple has India's top-selling handset model in the iPhone 16, Samsung leads (perhaps surprisingly) the April-June value chart, and Vivo is the number one smartphone vendor by volume in the world's most populous nation... again.
Apple is still nowhere to be found among India's top five smartphone vendors. | Image Credit -- Counterpoint Research
The iPhone 16, remember, was named the world's bestseller in Q1 2025, so it's certainly not surprising to see Apple's September 2024-released 6.1-inch device top another crucial popularity table, this time with no details offered on its rivals and their place in the same table.
Samsung, meanwhile, managed to jump from second place during the opening quarter of this year to the number one spot in Q2 in terms of sales value, although the gap to the market's silver medalist is practically nonexistent. Said silver medalist is of course Apple, which was ranked first between January and March 2025 but a pretty distant second in the April-June timeframe of last year.
What is your favorite smartphone brand from India's top five?
Vivo
6.98%
Samsung
86.05%
Oppo
2.33%
Realme
0%
Xiaomi
4.65%
So, yes, both Samsung and Apple can probably be pleased with the latest profits derived from their smartphone sales in India, which may not be entirely true for Vivo. The China-based brand continues to lead India's smartphone market in sales volume, boosting its dominant slice of the pie from 17 percent in Q2 2024 to 20 percent in the newest Counterpoint Research report, but its value share remains stagnant, at 15 percent, signaling a pretty big problem in the premium and ultra-premium segments.
Other vendors deserve great praise too
I'm talking primarily about Nothing and Motorola, which may not be among India's top five smartphone vendors, but are definitely likely to get there... eventually if they keep up their towering recent growth rates.
Believe it or not, Nothing's Q2 shipments in the region are up 146 percent from the same period of last year. Just in case that number doesn't sound impressive enough, Carl Pei's company is the nation's fastest-growing brand for the sixth consecutive quarter, which is an absolutely incredible feat no other smartphone maker has achieved before.
Vivo can't be happy about Samsung and Apple's advantage in this value chart. | Image Credit -- Counterpoint Research
As for Motorola's humbler but still phenomenal 86 percent year-on-year increase in Indian sales, that was apparently driven by both the Moto G and Edge families on the back of "expanded distribution and deeper retail penetration in smaller cities", which sounds like two factors that will inevitably propel the Lenovo-owned brand to the country's top five (or even top three) vendor group.
In the aforementioned "ultra-premium" division of India's smartphone market, meanwhile, OnePlus remarkably managed to boost its shipments by 75 percent thanks to the company's latest high-end models (compact 13s included), although that still wasn't enough to push the brand's volume share higher than 2 percent.
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With or without its sister brand's numbers, Oppo ranked third in volume in Q2 2025, behind Vivo and Samsung but ahead of Realme, Xiaomi, or Poco, not to mention Apple, Motorola, and Nothing. All in all, sales went up in India by 8 percent compared to last year's second quarter, while the market's wholesale value absolutely exploded, gaining 18 percent in the same period of time.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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