'India smartphone shipment falls 51% in June qtr: Report

New Delhi: India's smartphone shipments declined by 51 per cent year-on-year to just over 18 million units in the June quarter due to coronavirus-related disruption, Counterpoint Research said on Friday.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown had resulted in zero shipments during April. However, the market is starting to return to normal.

"In June 2020, Indian smartphone shipments registered a mild decline of 0.3 per cent y-o-y, thanks to the pent-up demand as well as a push from brands," Counterpoint said.

It added that due to concerns over potential COVID-19 infection, consumers prefer contactless purchasing and online channels. Smartphone brands are also recognising this trend by pushing more inventory to online channels, it noted.

Smartphone vendors had shipped a little over 31 million units in the March 2020 quarter, and 37 million units in the June 2019 quarter, as per previous Counterpoint reports.

"The COVID-19 pandemic wiped-out almost 40 days of production as well as the sales of smartphones due to the nation-wide lockdown... the market witnessed a surge in sales as the lockdown restrictions were slowly lifted," Counterpoint Research Senior Research Analyst Prachir Singh said.

The quarter was, thus, marred by both demand and supply constraints which led Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) to rethink their go-to-market strategies, he added.

"On the supply side, the factories were shut down in April and started operating in May, which resulted in supply shortages for some manufacturers. Some brands maintained the supply of their products by importing fully assembled handsets," Singh said.

Additionally, the last week of the quarter saw components being held up at customs, which also impacted the supply chain, he added. Xiaomi led the tally with 29 per cent share of the smartphone market, followed by Samsung (26 per cent), Vivo (17 per cent), Realme (11 per cent) and Oppo (9 per cent).