India overtakes US to become 2nd largest smartphone market behind China

November 9, 2018

According to research firm Canalys, India has overtaken US to become second largest smartphone market in the July-September 2018 quarter. India saw shipment of 40.4 million units during third quarter and was second to China where 100.6 million smartphones were shipped. Smartphone shipment in US was at 40 million units.

Key Highlights

Worldwide smartphone shipments fell by 7.2% year-on-year to 348.9 million units during July-September 2018, a fourth consecutive quarter of decline. This was also worst third quarter performance since 2015. Seven of the top ten markets recorded year-on-year (y-o-y) declines, mainly caused by lengthening smartphone replacement cycles, worsening international trading conditions and competition from major Chinese vendors.

The three markets (among top 10) that registered growth were Indonesia (13.2% increase y-o-y to 8.9 million units), Russia (11.5% jump y-o-y to 8.8 million units) and Germany (2.4% rise y-o-y to 5.5 million units). China’s smartphone shipment declined 15.2% y-o-y, India by 1.1% and US by 0.4% in September 2018 quarter.
Samsung led vendor tally with 20.4% share in said quarter, followed by Huawei (14.9%), Apple (13.4%), Xiaomi (9.6%), and Oppo (8.9%). The worldwide smartphone market faces unprecedented challenge, while its dynamics are changing rapidly at both vendor and country level. This is providing growth opportunities for aggressive vendors with speed to respond quickly to market changes.