While the 'Made in China' tag continues to be dominant as far as handsets in India go, things are beginning to change.
A fleet of cutting-edge premium handsets have been lined up by OnePlus, Google, Huawei and Nokia.
Once the darling of consumers, the April-June sales figure for Apple is a historic low. This has coincided with Chinese player OnePlus taking top spot in premium smartphones with a share of 40 per cent and Samsung slipping to second position at 34 per cent in April-June.
People in the know said that from social and digital media campaign teams to communications specialists -- all hands were on deck, and every possible post or campaign with the potential to intensify the crisis, was being tracked.
Nokia has managed to enter the top-five list in the feature phone market within six months of its comeback
The first half of the year (H1-2020) was marked by sluggish growth with demand down 26 per cent YoY, while the second half saw recovery. H2-2020 recovered with 19 per cent YoY growth, reports Shivani Shinde.
This programme will offer Xiaomi phone users up to 70 per cent of the value on their old device when they upgrade to newer Redmi or Mi smartphones.
It has 18.9 per cent share of the market, down from 22.6 per cent for the third quarter of 2018 while Xiaomi has 27.1 per cent share.
With J7 Duo, Samsung joins the bandwagon of rear dual camera phones at a budget.
The company currently controls over 30 per cent of the online smartphone market in the country, but says that isn't enough.
In an open letter, the Confederation of All India Traders has appealed to Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Virat Kohli and others to stop endorsing Chinese products. It has also invited Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shilpa Shetty, Madhuri Dixit, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and others to join the campaign to boycott Chinese products under its flagship national movement 'Bharatiya Saaman-Hamara Abhiman'.
India is the world's third-largest smartphone market.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, recently stated that he sees India in the same position that China was seven to ten years ago
While the outbreak has forced most leading brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme to rework their launch dates and pricing strategies, Samsung, which struggled to maintain its hold over the market last year, has taken the lead.
While 100 per cent FDI is allowed in single-brand retail, if the foreign investment exceeds 51 per cent, the 30 per cent mandatory local sourcing norm kicks in.
Expansion of distribution network, venturing into new markets, supplementing production capacity, and ramping up workforce are all on the cards. Instead of trying to fight with brands having massive war chests, it will pass on the benefits to consumers by offering them phones at lower prices.
'I am new to Kings XI, so it is going to be how we come together, how the team dynamics work and take it forward.'
Urvi Malvania looks at what is in store for the IPL's 2019 edition.
'E-commerce scams are not new, but what s more alarming is the covert cyber warfare the Chinese entities are launching in India on a repeated basis.'
Internal management tensions, stiff opposition from Chinese handset makers led to halving of the company's market share
While OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro were launched in April, the devices were not brought into the Indian market given the lockdown.
Why Ashish Narsale is looking forward to its launch.
If you are an avid gamer, the iQOO3 is packed with features that is meant to tempt you, says Ashish Narsale.
In October, OnePlus said, it recorded Rs 500 crore of revenue in only the first two days of the festive sale on Amazon.in. The firm is looking at going beyond the metro cities by scaling up its offline stores to over 5,000 and setting up more than 100 'experience centres' in the top 50 cities by next year.
By getting its focus back on the sub-Rs 10,000 and other price segments, Vivo is filling key gaps aggressively in a bid to grab share and regain strength in smartphone market.
From OnePlus' Concept One smartphone to the Microsoft Xbox Series X, Khalid Anzar lists the top 6 gadgets we can look forward to in 2020.
At Rs 8,999 Micromax's 4G phone is pitched against the likes of Xiaomi, OnePlus and Oppo. But will it steal the limelight from these budget-smartphone worthies?
Market grew 15% YoY in June quarter, sharply lower from 23% in previous quarter and 34% in the same quarter of 2015
The BCCI is open to reviewing its sponsorship policy for the next cycle but has no plans to end its association with current IPL title sponsor Vivo as the money coming in from the Chinese company is helping India's cause and not the other way round, Board treasurer Arun Dhumal said on Friday. Anti-China sentiments are running high in India following the border clash between the two countries at Galwan valley earlier this week. The first skirmish at the India-China border in more than four decades left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead.
As 4G internet completes coverage of the entire country, rural markets have become the primary generator of sales.
Demonetisation impacted the smartphone market at almost all levels, including customer demand and stock movement in distribution channels.
However, considered its high price of Rs 25k, Chinese smartphones like Xiaomi Mi4 and Oppo's One Plus One can dent the Japanese phone's popularity.
To beat its rivals, Nokia has done what most Chinese brands did soon after they entered the Indian market. Tied up with a well-known Bollywood actor as endorser, associated with cricket and established fan engagement initiatives, reports T E Narasimhan.
The once-popular brand plans to try its luck in the smartphone market with reliability as its key proposition.
The strategy of selling the phone will remain the same.
Lenovo, Xiaomi, Vivo, Gionee lead the onslaught, beating Indian and global brands with smart deals and astute image management measures.
Budget smartphones will rule the market in 2015.
Let us take a look at some of the most important parameters that have completely transformed smartphones in the last few years.
6GB RAM, 16MP camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor... Himanshu Juneja reviews the OnePlus 3
It is all about hitting the ball high and timing it right.
