Who won the Indian smartphone battle in 2017?

Hello Friends,

Hope you are doing fine. Merry Christmas and Happy new year in advance. I am going to write my last blog post of this year. When a lot of tech enthusiasts have started analyzing the smartphone market of 2017, I thought to write my opinions about it. So, in this blog post, I am going to do a company by company analysis and will give my verdict on winners and losers. So, please read till last to have a complete idea about the battle of smartphones in India in 2017. Okay, we will start from the largest manufacturer of the world. Yes, its Samsung.

Samsung:

Samsung launched many handsets especially in the mid range (above 15000) and some incredible flagships. As usual, they set a trend which all the chinese makers copied. I am talking about the new 18:9 aspect ratio and bezzle less design. In budget segment, their marketing was all about discounting their mid range phones of 2016 and making them budget oriented mobile forcefully. For example, the whole year, they sold On 5, On 7 or On Nxt with heavy discounts. They also launched A5 & A7 2017 which could not be so popular until they started discounting them to around 20k rupees. But, the flagships of 2016 like S7 and S7 edge also went on sale and heavy discount was given via online retailers. That kind of worked for samsung as Flipkart reported record no of sales of Samsung S7. Needless to tell, their S8+ and Note 8 were largely accepted by the public. So, Samsung this year kind of lost in budget segment to Chinese player like Xiaomi, but a winner in flagship. 

Motorola:

Moto phones are still favorites to Indians. Thanks to the widely accepted nostalgia what Moto brand carries. Moto launched many G series devices, E series devices, and even Z series devices. The Z series happens to be their budget flagships. but unfortunately, people really do not want to pay the premium for motorola mobiles as 'Chinese' tag plays a huge role. Their G series like Moto G5 plus and G5s plus are the huge sellers in india. Moto G5 plus was largely accepted by public. But, let me tell you something, if Lenovo does not improve their software updates capability and service standards in India, it will be difficult for them to withstand the new entrants like Nokia in long run. The stock android concept is no more an only Motorola thing. The Motorola E4 plus were sold in huge numbers. But, again, bad word of mouth always create a problem. For it, the mediatek processor needs to be blamed. 

Honor:

Huawei made a huge come back with Honor as they provided some outstanding mobiles at very competitive price. For example, if I were to choose between Honor 8 pro and Oneplus 5 (Not 5T) definitely, I would choose, the Honor 8 Pro. The Honor mobiles like Honor 9i and 7x are hugely popular in India. Honor did not target the very budget segment. They targeted the 10 to 20k level mainly. The 6X was hugely discounted towards end of the year and record sales reported for the particular model. 

Xiaomi: 

The new king of Indian market will be Xiaomi. Its because of their outstanding offering in budget segment. Their reliance on Snapdragon processors even for 5k segment is outstanding and people really love it. The best selling mobile of India this year is not from Samsung. Its Redmi Note 4. Mi A1 is also the other mobile which was sold hugely because of Android One ROM & dual camera. Redmi 4, Redmi 4A, Redmi Y1, Mi Max 2, Mi Mix 2 and Redmi 5A are all very popular in India and the Xiaomi brand is evolving very well. But, the only area they need to focus is camera. That's kind of deal breaker.

Nokia: 

Nokia made a come back via HMD global and launched series of mobiles like Nokia 3,5,6, Nokia 8 and Nokia 2. All went well except Nokia 8. It seems, though Nokia 8 is an outstanding mobile, Oneplus beat it at its price as OP offered a bezzleless design. Nokia 8 should have been Bezzle-less. I frankly believe that. Nevertheless, its just the 1st year and Nokia seemed to sell millions across world and in India we can expect at least some lakhs. They mainly focused offline market and valued the offline retailers. Nokia 3 and 5 were launched offline first. They launched 3310 which was widely accepted by the people. By market share, they are now no 3 in India, thanks to the feature mobiles. 

Oppo & Vivo:

Oppo and Vivo continued to focus offline. However, many of their last year's mobiles like V5 plus and F1s came with excellent discounts this year. They launched F5, V7, V7 plus etc to lure offline customers. They still have good amount of shares in the Indian market. But, it seems, Motorola and Xiaomi have started giving stiff competition them even offline. I personally dont like any of their devices. 

LG:

LG launched G6 and V30 plus as their flagships. G6 did not work very well for LG. They are now 40% discounted. The camera is really good so as the display. They also launched Q6. Many got sold because of low priced 18:9 ratio. but, LG's marketing is quite haphazard. It seems the focus and implementation do not match. The brand value in fact plummeted this year. 

OnePlus:

Oneplus has a huge online fan base. But this year, they are selling their mobile offline too. The price went up again. The price of Oneplus is now par with some better mobiles like LG V30+, Google Pixel etc. Oneplus kind of seen in many unethical practices of tampering the benchmark score and optical zoom marketing etc during Oneplus 5 mobile launch in 2017. They also launched 2 flagships in just 6 months of time interval. That irritated some fans. However, it still remains the favorite between 25k to 40k. Oneplus 3T got a price cut too. Next year might be a problematic for Oneplus as the hardware market is getting saturated. But, this year, they are the largest share holder in Budget Flagships. 

Google:

The google Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 2 launched in novemeber and already are under heavy discount. They are the fastest smartphones currently. However, bad screen panel from LG still haunts them. High price made the sale minimal in India. 

And

Apple:

Apple made a buzz when they copied the idea of 18:9 ratio of Samsung and implemented in their iphone X. Both iphone 8 and 8 plus were not accepted largely by their fans. The iPhone X, though, largely accepted by people. The 1000 USD mobile is currently the costliest mobile available in the market. The design is superb But, iOS11, FaceID, the notch etc are still haunting the apple brand. Apple might be running out of ideas for next year, but they have good news. Indian market for apple is growing at rapid pace. iPhone 7 however, was the largest selling device in India for apple. Thanks to some extra discounts.

Winner----------------------------------->>>>>>

The Winner is only one company which doubled its market share. That one is Xiaomi. They have captured the market from Micromax and Intex and now pose a threat to Samsung. All the best Xiaomi !

Runners Up-------------------------------------->>>>

Its Nokia. Why? They improved their market share and are now no 3 in indian market. From Nokia 3,5 &6, its concluded that the Nokia brand is still alive in India. 

Losers: 

The main loser is Lenovo. I may say Micromax. But its actually Lenovo.1 year back, Lenovo had a huge line up of mobiles. They could have made it larger. It seems they have lost their hopes. Now, their only focus is Motorola. Their Zuk brand is dead. The K8 note is a flop. K8 plus is somewhat accepted but thats because the price dropped hugely in just 2 months. Their service and software support are horrible. So, I expect Lenovo to improve its portfolio. Else, it will have same fate like Asus.

Thats it from my side. Thank you very much. Comment, follow, like and Share.

Keep Smiling. Be Kind.

Love

Ashis

Mail on ashisiniter@gmail.com for any comments.