Apple couldn't unseat Samsung in India during the latest smartphone festive season.
In a new report from analytics firm Strategy Analytics, India's smartphone sales revenue grew seventeen percent annually in the first eight days of festive season sales. The report took a look at sales between September 23rd to 30th and found that Samsung, Xiaomi, and Realme took the top three positions during the event which sold an estimated 12.8 million units worth of smartphones.
Linda Sui, Senior Director at Strategy Analytics, said that Samsung likely took the top spot due to heavy discounts on its devices. According to the report, some of its phones were discounted as much as sixty percent.
“Samsung, Xiaomi and Realme are the top 3 benefiters from this festive season sale. These three brands combined accounted for 62% of the overall sales in volume terms. Samsung led the chart in the first week of festive season sales this year, with 26% market share. We estimate Samsung sold out 3.3 million units of smartphones this year. It has successfully surpassed Chinese vendors driven by the attractive price discounts across all price tiers, as well as the enhanced channel presence. This time, Samsung devices were discounted to the max of around 60% from their actual retail price. The premium models like S22 Ultra, S21 FE, S22 Plus, Z Flip 3 were handsomely discounted and were sold quite well during the festive season. In mid-range, Samsung Galaxy F13 and M13 were heavily discounted and sold well.”
Wait...where's Apple in this chart?
Wait. Where was the iPhone in all of this?
Abhilash Kumar, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, noted that, while Apple didn't manage to crack the top three during the sales season, it "sold well." According to Kumar, the iPhone 13 drove most of the sales during that time due to some attractive discounts.
“Apple couldn’t make to the top 3 in terms of units but sold well. Apple devices were discounted up to 33% at major e-retailers. The second gen devices like iPhone 13 was handsomely discounted and well received. We believe iPhone 13 was the best-selling model for two reasons. Firstly, it’s the latest one of all the models available for sale with attractive discount. Secondly, apart from satellite connectivity and crash detection iPhone 14’s look and feel are quite similar to that of iPhone 13 and the processor is also the same in both the devices. Hence, people already have the option for a cheaper iPhone 13. We believe after the discount on iPhone 13, its demand will grow more in the following festive sales.”
While Apple continues to work on iPhone sales in India, it is also potentially moving more of its production to the country. A recent report said that the company may soon produce 25% of iPhones in India.
