India’s smartphone market emerges as second largest globally by unit volume and moves to third largest by value…
These days, every single person in India seems to have a smartphone. Actually, these days, every single person in India seems to have more than one smartphone. So, it comes as no surprise that, according to the latest data estimates, India has moved to second in the list of the world’s largest smartphone buyers in terms of volume and third in terms of value.
Independent researches were conducted by Counterpoint Research and Canalys and both have made the same observations. According to Counterpoint Research, India accounted for 15.5% of global smartphone shipments in Q3 of 2024. By value, India accounted for 12.3% of the global market.
Global Leaders for Volume and Value
In Q3 of 2024, China led the global smartphone market in terms of both volume and value. Talking about units sold, China led by 22% around the world, followed by India at 15.5% and USA at 12%.
And if we consider the value, China maintained its dominance with 31% of total global sales followed by USA at 19%. India came in third at 12.1%.
In Q3, smartphone shipments in India grew by 3% year on year while value surged 12% year on year. This is an all-time quarterly high for the country.
Top Selling Smartphones Globally
Samsung continues to lead the worldwide market in terms of shipment with a 19% volume share. Samsung was followed by Apple in second place while Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo completed the top 5.
Samsung led with 57.5 million shipments, followed by Apple with a record 54.5 million units mainly due to iPhone 16’s strong launch in emerging markets.
Xiaomi held third with 42.8 million units, Oppo came in fourth with 28.6 million and Vivo finished fifth with 27.2 million units.
Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, said: “The global smartphone market has reached maturity, and shipments are expected to remain stable in the coming years. Growth will likely be driven by emerging markets like India, MEA and Southeast Asia. New technologies like GenAI and foldables are also likely to drive ASP growth as adoption rates rise. By 2028, we expect more than half of smartphones shipped to be GenAI capable as broader use cases continue to emerge and availability expands across price segments.”
Reasons for Growth in Demand in India
With an early start to the festive season in 2024, India saw a tremendous demand for smartphones in Q3. With people gifting phones to loved ones and also upgrading their own models, smartphones was one of the most sought-after categories in this quarter.
New models – Especially the iPhone 16 – launching around this time of the year coupled with massive discounts and sales available are more reasons why Q3 always performs well for the smartphone industry in India.
Neil Shah, co-founder of Counterpoint Research, says, “India remains one of the most underrated yet high-sale markets, with a smartphone base of 690 million out of a population of 1.4 billion. With the ongoing premiumisation trend, there’s considerable room for value growth as many users upgrade to their third or fourth phone.”
The Last Word
With India’s cementing its position as the second largest smartphone consumers in the world, this change is reflective of a dynamic consumer landscape. With nearly half the population still to adopt smartphones and with the premiumisation trend steadily unfolding, there is a lot of untapped market potential within India.
Looking ahead, the smartphone industry is very likely to see a robust growth in India thanks especially to festive demand, new product launches and technological advancements like GenAI capabilities.
Q3 of 2024 might have been record-breaking but it looks like India’s smartphone market is just warming up!
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