India, a growing digital nation, is a now expanding its massive market with record number of smartphone imports. Canalys, a leading marker analyst firm, has on Thursday reported the remarkable rise of smart phone shipments to India by titling it as ‘India overtakes US to become 2nd largest smartphone market’. The impressive third quarter figures of shipments reveal that India has surpassed US to become second largest smartphone hub in the world. China holds the top position.
The report says that India would have accomplished this feat much before, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization move in 2016 has delayed it. According to Canalys report, the leading phone makers like Samsung, Vivo, Xiomi, Oppo and Lenovo hold 75% of the market in India. While Samsung tops the race, Xiomi, Vivo, Oppo & Lenovo follows it. While Samsung shipped 9.4 million smartphones in the second quarter, Vivo has shipped 9.2 million mobiles in the same time.
Whereas United States have shipped a record 2.5 million phones and Apple’s iPhone is the major one from them. In Q3 2017, more than 900,000 devices were shipped from US to India.
Canalys analyst Rushabh Doshi said, ‘The Indian economy is proving very strong in the second half of 2017, now that the twin shocks of GST and demonetization are behind it. Reduced indirect taxes have added new equity to the market, with distributors and retailers able to serve areas beyond their home regions as inter-state operations become easier. As the infrastructure matures, consolidation in distribution is inevitable.’