Counterpoint: Indian smartphone market may hit new highs

According to Counterpoint Research, India's smartphone market will hit an all-time high of 173 million units in 2021, up 14% year-on-year. Smartphone shipments are expected to exceed 100 million units in the second half of the year.

The agency added that the market has been experiencing strong consumer demand after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in June, and the strong sales momentum will continue during the festive period from August to November.

India's smartphone market is the second largest in the world after China. In 2020, the Indian market outperformed the North American, Latin American and African markets.

"Given India's population of 1.39 billion (and growing), users upgrading from feature phones to smartphones, and the emergence of new users in the future, our outlook for India over the next five years remains positive. The market will cross the 200 million mark in the next few years," Counterpoint said.

The research firm noted that the market had been growing steadily over the past five years, reaching 158 million units in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, market shipments fell slightly by 4% to 152 million units in 2020, but even when a second wave of the pandemic hit the country in the second quarter of 2021, the smartphone market rebounded faster than expected and recorded its highest-ever shipments in the first half of 2021.