Fringe brands step up phone launches to cash in on Covid-induced surge in demand

New Delhi: There will be no dearth of choice for Indian smartphone shoppers looking beyond the most popular brands this festive season. Brands like LG, ASUS, Karbonn, Gionee, iTel, Infinix, Tecno, Motorola, Nokia, Sony and Honor have all scampered into the market with new smartphone launches to seize the opportunity created by huge demand for budget phones and anti-China sentiment in the midst of the Covid pandemic. According to Counterpoint data, out of 43 launches of smartphone models and variants in August and September, almost a quarter have come from the fringe brands, for the first time in years. Analysts, though, expect the smartphone biggies to swing back into action in October.

Industry analysts are expecting the cumulative market share of the smaller brands by volume to increase from 5% to 8% in the September quarter. India’s smartphone market currently is dominated by the likes of Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Realme. “This is after a long time that we are seeing renewed energy from these companies due to emergence of new use cases such as e-learning, which is primarily driving the growth of the smartphone market post-Covid,” said Shilpi Jain, research analyst at Counterpoint.