#TechnologyNews #India has a new number 2 player in the smartphone market #BB

NEW DELHI: The Indian smartphone market dynamics have seen a big change after quite some time. According to a report by Counterpoint Research, Chinese smartphone brand has emerged as the second biggest brand in the country. In the fourth quarter of the calendar year 2019, Vivo garnered 21% market share. Vivo has replaced Samsung, that has now moved down to the third place. Samsung had about 19% market share.

At the top, there’s no change as Xiaomi continues to be the number one player with 27% market share. The fourth and fifth spot was captured by Oppo and Realme with 12% and 8% market share respectively.

The quarter turned out to be massive for Vivo as this is the first time it has entered the top two of Indian smartphone market. As per Counterpoint Research, Vivo grew 76% year-over-year in 2019. In quarter four year-over-year, Vivo grew by 134%.

Counterpoint Research is putting this growth down to Vivo’s strong performance in the budget segment.

“By successfully pivoting to online and aggressively positioning the S series in the offline segment with new features, it managed to make a dent in the Rs 15,000 Rs 20,000 segment,” said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint.

Vivo has been an aggressive player in the last one year. It has launched S-series of smartphones as well as V series of smartphones.

As far as other brands are concerned, Samsung moving to third place has also happened for the first time. Vivo’s emergence as the second biggest player would’ve surprised many industry watchers.

Counterpoint Research’s report also states that Apple’s market share is now 2% in the country. The Cupertino-based tech giant has grown 41% year-on-year riding on the strong performance of iPhone XR and iPhone 11.

For Vivo, the challenge would be now to consolidate its position as well as thwart challenges from Samsung, Xiaomi and others.