Counterpoint: Supply chain issues caused decline in India phone market in Q1

The India phone market had a tough first quarter of the year. According to Counterpoint Research, makers pushed 38 million smartphones, which is 1% less than they did twelve months ago.

Feature phones sales between January and March 2022 went off a cliff though, falling 39%. This brings the overall sales decrease to 16%.

The first quarter of 2022 began with a slow start due to the third COVID wave in the Asian country, Senior Research Analyst Prachir Singh revealed. The supply chain issues affected all major manufacturers who had to adopt different strategies for dealing with the problem. Some makers decided to expand the supplier portfolio, while others increased local sourcing.

However, the market is likely to remain stagnant in Q2 due to the current COVID situation in China which certainly will not help with bringing production and logistics to pre-pandemic levels.

Realme was the only major brand that recorded a yearly increase in sales, jumping from fifth to third place on the market.

The main reason for the company’s 40% rise is the adoption of Unisoc chipsets which helped with the sales of ultra-affordable devices but Realme was also aggressive in its online promotions, which also helped drive the growth.

Counterpoint also revealed Samsung was the top-selling company of 5G smartphones, while the OnePlus Nord CE 2 was the single best-selling 5G model in Q1 2022. The premium segment unsurprisingly was led by Apple, followed by Samsung.

Source