Economic slowdown is steadily beginning to adversely affect several industries in India. On the sidelines of the Xiaomi Mi A3 launch in India, the company is confident about its business in India. It believes that smartphone sales will remain insulated from the impact as the festive season inches closer.
The India smartphone market saw its highest-ever shipment of 36.9 million in Q2, 2019. As per IDC, this is a 9.9 percent increase year-over-year, and 14.8 percent increase quarter-over-quarter.
“We keep hearing regarding the economic slowdown at the macro level. From our perspective, we rely on third-party agencies to understand in which direction the market is heading,” Raghu Reddy, Head of Categories and Online Sales, Xiaomi India, told IANS. “We have seen smartphone market growing at over 8-9 per cent in the first half of the year. Based on these figures, we expect same growth, even more, in the upcoming festive season,” Reddy added.
IDC adds that Xiaomi saw its shipment volume grow by 4.8 percent year-over-year in Q2. It is ranked first in India based on shipments for the eight consecutive quarter. Its 28.3 percent market share is followed closely by Samsung’s 25.3 percent share.
“People cannot live without smartphones. If an existing phone stops working, one would buy a new one. We believe it would be the last sector to get impacted,’ said Reddy, adding that not just smartphones, but Xiaomi TVs would also do well in terms of sales. “We had a good start in the TV segment with shipping 2 million TVs. According to IDC, we have 14 per cent share of the smart TV market in India and hopefully, this trend would continue for us,” Reddy told IANS.
Xiaomi Mi A3 India launch
Earlier today, Xiaomi launched its Mi A3 smartphone in India. Prices for the new device starts at Rs 12,999, and it goes on sale starting August 23. The Mi A3 too is a part of Android One initiative and runs stock Android OS out-of-the-box. Its talking point is the 48-megapixel triple camera setup at the back.
“Camera is an important point where consumer need to upgrade. If a manufacturer offers a better camera phone, it catches the customer’s imagination. Camera is an important direction in which most of the smartphone manufacturers are moving,” the Xiaomi executive adds.
With Inputs from IANS