5G smartphone shipments grow 14% in India in Q1

The 5G smartphone shipments grew 14 per cent (year-on-year) in India in the first quarter (Q1) 2023, with 5G smartphone shipment share increased to 41 per cent, a new report said on Friday.

According to CyberMedia Research (CMR), India's 5G smartphone momentum continued through Q1 2023 with 34 new 5G launches, with Samsung leading the country's market with a 23 per cent share, followed by Apple with a 17 per cent market share.

In addition, India's smartphone market shipments declined by 21 per cent (year-on-year), during Q1 2023, while the overall mobile market in the country declined by 20 per cent (year-on-year).

"The decline in smartphone shipments during Q1 2023 marks the first ever Q1 decline since 2019 and is attributed to extended inventory, weakened demand, and inflation. The overall feature phone segment declined by 19 per cent (year-on-year), driven by muted demand and an increase in feature phone to smartphone upgrades," said Shipra Sinha, Analyst - Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR).

Moreover, the report showed, due to challenging economic conditions and slow demand, India saw a 38 per cent (year-on-year) decline in the affordable smartphone segment (sub-Rs 7000), a 25 per cent (year-on-year) decline in the value-for-money smartphone segment (Rs 7000 - Rs 25,000), and a 23 per cent decline in the premium smartphone segment (Rs 25,000 - Rs 50,000).

However, the super-premium smartphone segment (Rs 50,000 - Rs 1,00,000) and the uber premium segment (>Rs 1,00,000) shipments saw remarkable growth of 96 per cent and 208 per cent (year-on-year), respectively.

Samsung (20 per cent), Vivo (17 per cent) and Xiaomi (16 per cent), captured the top three spots in the smartphone leaderboard in Q1 2023, followed by Oppo (10 per cent) and Realme (9 per cent). Around $2 billion worth of 5G smartphones shipped in Q1 2023.