With 53% market share, Chinese vendors eclipse Indian smartphone players

With 53% market share, Chinese vendors eclipse Indian smartphone players

by | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, Markets, Medium Enterprise, News, SMEs, Technology

GameNew Delhi : Despite the government’s continuous push to help domestic smartphone manufacturers, China-based vendors are thriving and their collective market share has reached a massive 53 per cent in 2017 from 34 percent a year ago, International Data Corporation (IDC) has said.

“The untapped demand in the lower-tier cities remains the key attraction for China-based brands to explore the growth trajectory in India,” said Jaipal Singh, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

Their strength in their home market of China and weakening position of local players has helped some of these China-based players to solidify their operations in India,” he added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget announced a hike in customs duty on mobile phones to 20 per cent from 15 per cent.

“Customs duty on import of mobile phone parts will be increased to 20 per cent from the existing 15 per cent. This will boost jobs in the smartphone sector in India,” Jaitley said during his speech.

According to the IDC’s “Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker”, the Indian smartphone market witnessed a healthy 14 per cent annual growth with a total shipment of 124 million units in 2017 — making it the fastest growing market amongst the top 20 smartphone markets globally.

The market resumed its double-digit growth after a temporary slowdown in 2016 caused by factors such as demonetisation and a shortage of smartphone components.

This contrasts with China, the world’s largest smartphone market that saw its first decline this year, while the US was relatively flat.

When it comes to feature phones, 2017 was an exceptional year for this category as it witnessed a 17 per cent annual growth after declining for three consecutive years.

While feature phones remain relevant to a large consumer base in India, the Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio shipped huge shipments of 4G enabled feature phones taking the leadership position in its maiden quarter in this category, IDC said.

This resulted in a total of 164 million feature phone shipments in 2017 from 140 million a year ago.

“Xiaomi taking a lead over Samsung in the smartphone market and Reliance Jio emerging as the leading feature phone company in India were the two key highlights of the last quarter of 2017,” said Upasana Joshi, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

—IANS

New FDI norms to raise organised retailers’ market share to 10% by 2020

New FDI norms to raise organised retailers’ market share to 10% by 2020

by | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, Emerging Businesses, Investing, Markets, News

FDINew Delhi : The governments recent move to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail under the automatic route is expected to increase the market share of organised retail in India to 10 per cent by fiscal 2020, rating agency Crisil said on Monday.

Crisil said the decision will increase the market share by almost 100 basis points from its earlier expected share growth of nine per cent by fiscal 2020, based on healthy revenue growth of 18 per cent of organised brick and mortar (B&M) retailers.

“Better operating environment for single-brand retail would also mean the pace of store additions by organised retailers will be faster than the annual 10-12 per cent Crisil had presaged earlier,” it said in a statement.

According to Crisil, the impact of relaxation in rules would be more pronounced in the apparel, luxury goods, home decor, footwear, and electronics segments, which make up around 45 per cent of the country’s organised retail revenues.

“Global single-brand retailers facing growth headwinds in their key geographies will now be more than keen to peg tent in India,” said Anuj Sethi, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings.

“And those already present could step up investments. The previous sourcing norms were a bottleneck to scaling-up of operations,” he added.

Crisil said while FDI approval under the automatic route will lower the time to commence business, the relaxation of 30 per cent local sourcing norms for the first five years by allowing inclusion of incremental sourcing for global operations will provide sufficient time for new entrants to set up and stabilise their sourcing base.

“All this will mean increase in competition for domestic organised B&M retailers,” said Amit Bhave, Director, Crisil Ratings.

“However, more foreign retailers vending their ware would also lead to sharper focus on, and improvements in, supply chain efficiencies which will benefit the sector over the medium term,” he added.

The rating agency believes that healthy growth prospects for the sector and benefits of scale and focus on profitability, will help offset the impact of higher capital spending and increasing competition on credit profiles over the medium term.

—IANS