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According to a new report by IDC today, India’s smartphone market declined in shipment volume by 4.1% in the first quarter of this year (January to March). The total amount shipped during that quarter was 31 million units. Despite the falling volume, the market actually grew by 5.8% in value.
Interestingly, IDC says “rising memory prices drove brands to front-load channel inventory ahead of anticipated cost escalations, pushing shipment volumes above initial expectations”. Even so, “consumer demand remained subdued”, weighed down by elevated device prices and “cautious spending sentiment”.
As you can see, vivo still leads the pack in India, with a 19.6% market share for Q1 of this year compared to 19.7% in the year-ago quarter. Its shipments have fallen pretty much in line with the overall market. Samsung is second with flat sales and a 17.1% market share, followed by Oppo with the biggest sales growth year-on-year: 22%, for a market share of 15.3%.
Apple is in fourth and like vivo its sales dropped almost exactly in tune with the market overall, while Motorola is the second-best performer in terms of growth after Oppo, hitting 14% year-on-year and reaching a market share of 8.9%. Realme is in sixth with 20% less shipments, Xiaomi is in seventh with a minor 3% growth, Poco is in eighth with a 14% fall in shipments, followed by iQOO with an even bigger 23% decline.
That said, no brand has done worse than OnePlus this quarter, which had the biggest sales decline at 32% less versus Q1 2025. OnePlus now has just 1.7% market share, and it used to be 2.4% just one year ago.
IDC says “consumers in sub-$100 brackets are being pushed upmarket by necessity rather than aspiration” and this is a trend that “reshapes demand forecasting for 2026 and beyond”. Companies that rely a lot on selling a lot of entry-level devices “face shrinking margins and reduced market viability” as memory prices continue to rise.
Under-$100 phone sales dropped 59% year-on-year, while the biggest increases came from the $600-800 segment (up 32%), the $400-600 segment (up 29%), and the $100-200 segment (up 10%). The average selling price in Q1 was $302, which is an all-time record. Interestingly, offline sales have a 62% share of the pie, with online sales making up 38%, the latter being down from 42%.
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