India's smartphone market recovers from note ban, grows 4.7% in Q1

New Delhi: India's smartphone market seems to have recovered from the impact of demonetisation with sales growing by 4.7 percent to 27 million units in January-March 2017 compared to the previous quarter, says a report.

The first quarter of the year saw smartphone shipments growing at "healthy" 14.8 percent over the year-ago period, the report by research firm IDC said.

The government's move to scrap high denomination notes in November last year had resulted in over 20 percent fall in shipments in that quarter over the preceding quarter.

However, with digital payment options becoming more mainstay and cash transactions picking up again, smartphone sales in the country have recovered, say industry watchers.

As per IDC, China-based vendors continued to strengthen their grip in the Indian smartphone market, capturing 51.4 percent share of the smartphone shipments.

"The China-based vendors were already bringing majority of devices in 4G segment, which benefited them in leveraging the 4G wave demand in India," IDC said.

However, Samsung continued to dominate the market with 28.1 percent market share. Xiaomi followed in the tally with 14.2 percent share, while Vivo, Lenovo and Oppo had 10.5 percent, 9.5 percent and 9.3 percent share, respectively.

"Homegrown vendors are making attempts to recapture the lost ground with new launches in sub-USD 100 as well as in the mid-range segment. But intense competition from China-based vendors continues to be a major challenge and is expected to increase in coming quarters," IDC India Market Analyst (Client Devices) Jaipal Singh said.

Interestingly, the average selling price (ASP) of smartphones has increased to USD 155 in the quarter under review from USD 131 in the first quarter of 2016.