India Could Be Apple and Samsung’s Solution to the Future of Phones

Vivo represented 15.8 p.c of the Indian telephone market within the third quarter of 2024 in accordance with IDC, comfortably overtaking Samsung. It’s no newcomer, both. Vivo was India’s third-place model way back to 2018, in accordance with Canalys.

It has produced some nice telephones and pushed the envelope in telephone digicam tech specifically, claiming firsts for using a gimbal sensor stabilization in 2020’s Vivo X50 Professional and, afterward, pixel shift within the Vivo X60 collection.

In case you are amongst those that haven’t encountered a Vivo telephone earlier than, you would possibly assume it’s a neighborhood model, an Indian one. It isn’t. Vivo is from the BBK group of telephone producers, alongside Oppo, OnePlus, Realme, and others. These are all Chinese language corporations, underneath a mother or father firm giant sufficient to forged a Lovecraftian shadow. These Chinese language manufacturers are liable for shaping the place the Indian telephone market is in 2024.

“Due to low-cost knowledge and the entry of the Chinese language manufacturers into India over the previous seven, eight years, [Chinese manufacturers] actually democratized the value factors,” says Singh.

A decade or extra in the past, commerce reveals had been filled with characteristic telephones made for creating markets like India. Characteristic telephone dominance has been flipped, and India is now getting into a stage the place, identical to the West, the general public is more accepting of and extra capable of purchase higher-priced phones.

“’Worth for money’ has been the widespread psyche of an Indian shopper, however it’s shifting swiftly in the direction of shopping for extra premium telephones,” says Neil Shah, vice chairman at CounterPoint Analysis. “The telephone has turn out to be central to each person, with the next ROI than even shopping for a automotive, home, or insurance coverage. Shoppers are seeing smartphones as extra of an funding alternative.” A telephone, in India, can at instances be every part.”

The info backs that up. Based on Counterpoint, the common sale worth of a smartphone in India has risen from $192 in Q3 2020 to $293 in the identical quarter in 2024.

It’s this impact that has helped Apple carry out so effectively in India, with an virtually 60 p.c reported improve in market share from Q3 2023 to 2024, in accordance with IDC figures.

“Contemplating that the common promoting worth of Apple is so excessive, it is an achievement that Apple has finished effectively previously few years,” says Singh. “One of many main causes is Apple is seen as an aspirational model in India. It has a model halo. All people would love to purchase an iPhone. Not all people can afford one.”