Whether or not they're actually successful in India, pretty much all of the world's major smartphone vendors clearly care a lot about their performance and progress (or lack thereof) in the single most populous country around the globe. That's obviously because there are so many prospective mobile device buyers out there, but also due to the incredible resilience of the Indian smartphone market, which used to show promising signs of growth when shipments were falling nearly everywhere else.
Unfortunately, those times have passed, and in line with the global industry, smartphone sales are now dropping in India as well. But the huge regional market is moving towards "gradual recovery", at least according to a new Canalys report that puts the local Q3 2023 shipment total at around 3 percent less than the Q3 2022 score.
Samsung vs the rest
We're talking 43 million units moved across the country between July and September of this year, with the largest chunk technically deriving from the "others" category of the latest vendor chart. Of course, it's not fair to compare individual brands with a group that includes everyone from Motorola to OnePlus, Infinix, Tecno, and even Apple, which is why India's crown goes to Samsung... again.
The world's number one smartphone vendor leads the hierarchy in India with a pretty narrow advantage over silver and bronze medalists Xiaomi and Vivo respectively after more or less doing the same in both Q1 and Q2 2023 as well.
But it was actually Xiaomi that took home this title back in Q3 2022, and compared to that period, Samsung only lost 3 percent of its regional shipments while the former champion slipped by no less than 17 percent.
17 percent just so happens to be Vivo's exact market share in third place, which is also a very positive result given that Samsung and Xiaomi only hold 18 percent slices of the pie each and India's China-based bronze medalist has somehow managed to mostly keep its sales numbers in the region unchanged from last year's third quarter.
In fourth and fifth places, Realme and especially Oppo suffered pretty serious declines in Q3 2023 compared to the same timeframe of 2022, which further highlights the solid performance of several brands from the "others" division, including OnePlus and Motorola.
Wait, where's Apple?
Although Canalys is not yet ready to publish the detailed results of India's "premium" smartphone market segment for this latest quarter, Samsung is all but guaranteed to top that specific chart as well thanks largely to the strong demand generated by the Galaxy S23 family.
Apple is likely to be satisfied with its most recent quarterly premium sales numbers in the region too despite the brand-new iPhone 15 series launching after this period wrapped up. "Older-generation" iPhones, like members of the iPhone 14 and even iPhone 13 family, continued to prove popular in India, especially at "attractive" prices during recent "festive sales."
Looking ahead to the year's final three months, we should probably point out that Samsung managed to beat its local competition in Q4 2022 as well, which is exactly how we expect things to pan out at the end of 2023. Apple, meanwhile, will likely continue to lead the nation's "ultra-premium" segment, although we could definitely see the Cupertino-based tech giant move into the top spot for premium shipments altogether if the iPhone 15 lineup proves more successful in India than China.
Interestingly, companies like Oppo are also starting to increase their focus on the country's premium segment, seeking to prioritize profits and profit margins over volumes. Of course, you can always have the best of both worlds too... if your name is Samsung and both your Galaxy S high-enders and Galaxy A mid-rangers are selling like hotcakes.
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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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