Chennai: The replacement demand driven by 5G devices is expected to fuel moderate growth in the smartphone market in 2023, while the increased purchasing power during the election year of 2024 might help smartphones as well.
India’s smartphone shipments shrank 6 per cent in 2022 to 151.6 million units, according to Canalys.
The calendar year 2022 began with intermittent supply issues and low demand caused by global macroeconomic headwinds. India’s smartphone market suffered its first-ever drop in shipments in the fourth-quarter holiday period, falling by 27 per cent to 32.4 million.
“India was better positioned to weather the global downturn than other markets. But domestic consumer spending cooled in the last few months of 2022,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, Analyst at Canalys.
“Even during the festive season, the domestic market suffered a fall in transactions, retail spending and electronic imports. In 2022, consumers already had up-to-date technology that they had bought during the pandemic, thereby delaying further purchases,” he added.
Samsung took the number one spot in Q4 2022 for the first time since Q3 2017, shipping 6.7 million units for a market share of 21 per cent. After 20 quarters, Xiaomi lost its leadership position in Q4 2022 and fell to third place with shipments of 5.5 million units. However, for the full-year, Xiaomi was still the number one vendor.
In Q4 Vivo was in the second slot and Oppo and Realme in the fourth and fifth places.
Vendors focused predominantly on online channels suffered from a poor ecommerce festive sales performance in Q4 2022.
Though economic indicators suggest a sluggish performance in the short term, Canalys expects moderate growth in the Indian smartphone market in 2023 fuelled by a replacement cycle driven by 5G devices, state government deals, smartphone penetration and the introduction of new use cases.
In 2024, India is set to hold its general election and the government’s strategy will be to boost consumers’ purchasing power, even if inflation remains high. end
