Smartphone shipments in India fell 26% year on year to 35.8 million units in the July–September quarter, the lowest third-quarter volume since 2016, according to research firm Omdia. The decline came despite the start of the festive season.
Top five brands
| Rank | Brand | Units (million) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samsung | 6.7 |
| 2 | Vivo | 6.4 (down 34%) |
| 3 | Oppo | 4.9 (down 24%) |
| 4 | Xiaomi | 4.7 (down 28%) |
| 5 | Apple | 3.9 |
Samsung regained the top spot for the first time since early 2024, helped by its Galaxy A series, the S26 range and festive financing offers. Apple benefited from demand for the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 and from channel stocking ahead of expected price increases.
Why demand fell
Omdia pointed to rising phone prices, cautious consumer spending, weaker replacement demand and a later Diwali, which pushed some festive stocking into October. Higher component costs forced brands such as Xiaomi into difficult trade-offs on pricing, memory and storage. Chinese brands' combined share fell to about 68% from 75% a year earlier.
Omdia expects the market to decline by a further low single-digit percentage in 2027.
Comments
Sign in or create a free account to join the conversation.
No comments yet.