Original title: IDC:2019 Indian smartphone market shipments were 152.5 million units, up 8% from the same period last year.
Upasana Joshi, deputy research manager of IDC India terminal research, said that the inventory cycle of offline channels was longer in 2019, and offline sales were hit by online dedicated models, resulting in a growth of only 1.6 per cent in 2019. "through aggressive discounts on mainstream models and brands, cash-back policies, buyback / trade-in programs, and protective sales policies with financial plans such as attractive monthly installments, online growth remained strong throughout the year, accounting for a record 41.7% share in 2019, an increase of 18.4% year-on-year.
The average selling price of smartphones in 2019 was $163, up 2.8% from a year earlier. Products under $200 still account for 79% of the market share. Sales of $200-$500 mid-range models grew the strongest, up 55.2% from a year earlier, accounting for 19.3% of the total market share. Among the mid-and high-end models ($300,500), vivo continues to take the lead, with a market share of 28.0% in 2019, mainly driven by high sales of the vivo V15 Pro. The second is one plus, with a market share of 20.2%, which is mainly driven by the hot sale of one plus seven. Among the high-end models (more than $500,000), Apple Inc overtook Samsung to become the "number one" with a market share of 47.4%, mainly driven by the sharp decline in the price of older models, savings card / credit card payment channels, strong sales momentum from online retailers, and the lower price of iPhone 11 than iPhone XR.
Total smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019 were 36.9 million, up 5.5% from a year earlier and down 20.8% from a month earlier. Generally speaking, inventory in all channels will increase in the third quarter in preparation for sales during the Diwali holiday, while inventory will decline periodically in the fourth quarter because the main purpose of each channel is to clear inventory. Because online retailers maintained their momentum from Diwali to December, generating several rounds of sales, online channels grew 11.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2019, accounting for 43.3% of total shipments, while offline shipments were the same as the same period last year. 1.4% year-on-year growth.
The average selling price hit a new high of $172 in the fourth quarter of 2019, and sales of products in the $200-$300 range rose 71.9% from a year earlier, mainly due to hot sales of Galaxy M30s and vivo S1. The latest iPhone 11 pushes up shipments of products in the range of $700 or more. Among mid-and high-end models ($300,500), the popularity of the Reno 2 gave OPPO the first place with 26.8 per cent market share over one plus phones, which had 24.4 per cent market share. Among the high-end models (more than $500), Apple Inc's market share reached a record high of 75.6 per cent.
The market share of functional phones continued to decline year-on-year (21.1%), with shipments of 30.1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019. But Reliance Jio's Diwali promotional model (Rs 699), launched during the Diwali holiday in October, has helped its existing channels clear inventory of 4G phones. XIAOMI ranked first among mobile phone brands in the fourth quarter of 2019 (surpassing Samsung and Reliance Industries) with a market share of 16.0% and a year-on-year growth rate of 15.9%.
A review of the market performance of India's top five smartphone manufacturers in the fourth quarter of 2019:
XIAOMI shipped 43.6 million units in 2019, the highest annual shipments of a smartphone brand and a 9.2 per cent year-on-year increase. The Redmi Note 7 Pro and Redmi 6A are the most shipped models in the Indian market in 2019. With the launch of the Redmi Note 8 Pro/8A/Note 8amp 8 series, XIAOMI continued to lead the way in the fourth quarter with a year-on-year growth rate of 15.9%.
Vivo rose to second place, surpassing Samsung and achieving an ultra-high year-on-year growth rate of 96.5% in the fourth quarter. At the same time, vivo has overtaken Samsung to become the king of offline channels, mainly driven by the ultra-low-cost clearance of mainstream models after Diwali and the attractive channel policy from November to December 2019. Even though online channels are available exclusively for models with products covering all price segments, vivo persisted in ploughing offline channels and achieved extraordinary results in 2019.
Samsung slipped to third place and was the only company in the top five to decline in shipments in the fourth quarter of 2019 (down 15.4% from a year earlier). As the original Galaxy An is still in the process of phasing out, the upgraded Galaxy As series failed to maintain momentum due to the delay in release time, the reduction of channel incentives and other reasons. But the Galaxy M series and Galaxy M30s performed well online, bringing the share of online sales to a new high of 16.6% in the fourth quarter. Among the high-end models (more than $500), even with the introduction of an attractive cash-back policy, Samsung has caused a backlog of channel inventory due to strong competition from Apple Inc.
OPPO rose to fourth place in the fourth quarter of 2019, up 88.4% from a year earlier, mainly driven by hot sales of the price-friendly A series and Reno 2. Offline channels also show an optimistic situation due to a variety of incentives, concessions, marketing plans and other promotion.
Realme slipped to fifth place in the fourth quarter of 2019, but still grew by 74.1 per cent year-on-year. Realme online channel still ranks second, with a market share of 18.1% in 2019, an increase of 10 percentage points over the same period last year. The realme C2 is one of the top five best-selling models in online channels in 2019. In addition, the newly launched X2 Pro is also the highest shipments of mid-and high-end models ($300,500) in the fourth quarter.
Navkendar Singh, Research Director of IDC India Terminal Devices and IPDS, said: "IDC expects the Indian smartphone market to see slow single-digit growth in 2020. As the product update cycle becomes longer and natural growth becomes more difficult, India's smartphone ecosystem needs to focus more efforts on promoting the migration of a large group of functional phone users, in addition to maintaining the introduction of high-quality mid-and high-end models to accelerate upgrades. This year, we will see many new concepts, such as off-screen cameras, game functions, screens with higher refresh frequency, as well as operating system monetization and financial services launched by brands to open up new revenue channels. "