After being overtaken by Xiaomi for the second consecutive quarter, Samsung regained the top spot in the Indian mobile phone market in the second quarter, according to the latest data from market research firm IDC.
Samsung has a 24% share of the feature phone plus smartphone market in India, followed by Xiaomi and Vivo, but the latter two currently sell only smartphones in the country.
If we consider only smartphones, Xiaomi still ranks first, but Samsung has closed the gap. Samsung captured 26.3 percent of the Indian smartphone market in the second quarter, compared to 15.6 percent in the previous quarter.
Xiaomi and Vivo had 29.4 percent and 17.5 percent of the Indian smartphone market in the second quarter, respectively.
However, Navekender Singh, director of research at IDC India, said Samsung's lead may be temporary.
Samsung's market share gains in the past quarter were largely due to inventory shortages at local Chinese vendors, as well as minor anti-Chinese sentiment. If not for the Covid-19 and supply chain issues, Vivo should be second in the overall market, Singh said.
In the second quarter of 2020, Xiaomi's overall shipments fell 48.7 percent year-over-year to 5.4 million units.
Fourth-place Realme shipped 1.78 million units in 2Q20, down 37 percent year-over-year.
Fifth-ranked Oppo's shipments declined 51 percent year-over-year to 1.76 million units in the second quarter.
IDC said the Indian smartphone market recorded a steep 50.6 percent year-on-year decline to 18.2 million units in the second quarter of 2020, down from 36.8 million units a year ago.
