Chinese brands dominate India's smartphone market

An attendee uses her smartphone to take a picture of her selfie displayed on the camera app of a P9 smartphone (left), manufactured by Huawei Technologies Co, during a launch event in New Delhi, India, on Aug 17, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Chinese brands have captured the biggest share of the Indian smartphone market, The Paper reported on Wednesday citing latest industry figures.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, Chinese brands such as Vivo, Lenovo, Xiaomi and Oppo, took 46 percent of the total smartphone market - up from 14 percent a year ago, a report from tech research firm Counterpoint revealed.

Samsung, with a market share of 24 percent, continued to lead the Indian smartphone market, followed by Vivo (10 percent), Xiaomi (9 percent), Lenovo (9 percent) and OPPO (8 percent).

The month of November saw Chinese brand share reach an all-time high, accounting for 51 percent of the total smartphone market.

Chinese vendors' success was attributed to a variety of factors including aggressive portfolio strategies and substantial marketing spends, as well as better access to components that were in limited supply, the report said.

For the first time no Indian brand figured among the top five smartphone rankings.

Apple captured 10th position in the smartphone rankings during fourth quarter of 2016 but led the premium segment (above $450) with 62 percent market share.

India outpaced the United States last year to become the world's second-largest smartphone market, according to GSMA, an industry organization made up of around 800 telecom operators.

GSMA also predicted that India will have one billion mobile subscribers by 2020, compared with 616 million users in June 2016.