Covid-19 lockdown effect: Low-end Chinese smartphones disappear from shelves

The Chinese root of the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted Indian consumers’ plans to buy new smartphones. Reason being that the supply chains of the Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo, etc got impacted with China being down with the virus since January. Second, the subsequent lockdown in India led to closure of the assembly plants of phone makers in the country, which further affected production.

Result is that with the easing of the lockdown and opening of stores in the last few weeks, there’s a shortage of Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Realme, and Vivo, etc in the sub-Rs 15,000 category. Sales of the sub-Rs 15,000 category comprises more than 70% of the around 11 million sales of smartphones in a month, industry executives said.