Even in pandemic, Indians bought smartphones and made a new record

Indians shopped for 21 million smartphones in the month of October this year. While that might seem like a lot but it is second to the 23 million smartphones that Indians purchased in September this year.

As per the latest report by IDC, India's smartphone market registered a massive year-over-year growth of 42% in October shipping 21 million units. This is the highest ever October shipments and 2nd highest for a month, following 23 million units in September 2020. The company says that this growth was driven by multiple online sale festivals and continuing pent up demand from the third quarter of 2020.

As far as the city-wise breakup is concerned, IDC says that 25% of the market sat in top tier cities, which includes New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata leading to more than 50% YoY growth in October. Following these cities were Jaipur, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal and Coimbatore, where the market grew by 50% YoY. However, the rest of the states registered slower growth averaging at around 25% YoY, primarily owing to looming economic concerns and consumer spending narrowing to essentials only.

The report also said that the online channel continued to grow by 53% YoY capturing a 51% market share. The offline channels, on the other hand, witnessed a YoY growth of just 33% this month. Xiaomi led in 34 of the major 50 cities within the online channel, while Vivo led in 44 of the major 50 cities within the offline channel.

As far as the smartphones are concerned, the report says that the low-midrange segment grew by 60% YoY as its share increased to 58% of the total market with Xiaomi, Vivo, and Samsung leading the charts. Overall, Xiaomi led the charts in October by selling 5.5 million smartphones and capturing a 24.8% of market share. It was followed by Samsung on the second spot by selling 4.5 million smartphones and capturing a 20.6% of the market. They were followed by Vivo, Realme and Oppo on the third, fourth and fifth spots by selling 3.9, 3.0 and 2.7 million units of smartphones respectively.