30 million smartphones shipped in India in first quarter of 2018

Smartphone shipments in India showed a growth of 11%, to 30 million units, in the first quarter of 2018, which is a record high for the first quarter, said research firm IDC.

The same was about 27 million smartphone units in the first quarter of 2017.

As per IDC data, Xiaomi maintained its lead in the smartphone market for the second consecutive quarter with 30.3% share, followed by Samsung (25.1%), Oppo (7.4%), Vivo (6.7%) and Transsion (4.6%).

The smartphone market, however, remained almost flat compared to the previous quarter.

Overall, more than 85 million phones, including 55.2 million feature phones, were shipped in India in the period from January to March in 2018.

"Numerous companies also used the online channel to expand their share in the market, notable amongst those being Honor, iVOOMi and Tenor (10.or)" IDC said. Online channel accounted for facilitating 36% of the smartphone sales in the March quarter compared to 34.2% in the fourth quarter of 2017, IDC added.

The IDC report also stated that the 4G feature phone market in India continued to grow at more than 50% quarter-on-quarter, driven primarily by Jio Phone.