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India’s Smartphone Shipments in 2018 Were 44.2% of Installed Base
February 18, 2019
 
The overall smartphone average selling price in India (with volume behind only China) remained flat in 2018 at US$158, with shipments in the mass segment ranging from US$100-US$200 accounting for more than half of the smartphone market in India. Commenting on the price segment trends, Upasana Joshi, Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India adds, “The premium end of the market (above US$500) outgrew all other price segments in 2018 with 43.9% Y/Y growth, although it still constitutes a meager 3% share of the overall smartphone market. OnePlus emerged as the leader in US$500-US$700 segment on the back of the OnePlus 6 and the newly launched OnePlus 6T. However, in the super premium segment of US$700+, Samsung surpassed Apple for the top position with its Galaxy S9 series," adds Joshi. The feature phone market, which makes up 56.0% of the total mobile phone market, clocked 181.3 million-unit shipments in 2018, with 10.6% YoY growth. This was primarily driven by Jio Phone shipments through the year, contributing to 36.1% of overall feature phone shipments. 

The 2G/2.5G market declined by 23.0% YoY in 2018 owing to high demand for 4G-enabled feature phones in the market. India’s smartphone shipments were 142.3m up 14.5% Y/Y. Xiaomi went from #2 to #1, with a growth of 58.7% and a market share rising to 28.9% from 20.8%. Samsung dropped to #2, even as its shipments increased by 3.9%, not keeping pace with the market. 

Table 1: China’s Smartphone Shipments, Share and Growth

Source: IDC

​Comparing China to India, countries with virtually the same population, Chinese customers bought shipped 394m smartphones 34.8% of the installed based, while Indian customers bought 142m smartphones but that represented 44.2% of the installed base. The message is that India has lots of headway for smartphone shipment growth if it is to achieve comparable penetration as China.
 
Table 2: China vs. India Smartphones Shipments vs. Installed Base

Source: OLED-A