Mobile handset shipments in India recorded a 25 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019, while feature phone shipments saw a noticeable decline of around 49 percent and smartphones recorded a 10 percent growth, a new report said on Thursday.

According to CyberMedia Research (CMR), 4G contributed to 66 percent mobile handset shipments while 2G accounted for 34 percent.

Chinese handset brands continued to dominate the mobile handset leaderboard while the market share of Indian brands dipped to 30 percent during Q1 2019.

"The overall market decline was on expected lines for Q1 2019. The above industry average stock build-up at the end of the previous quarter resulted in lower shipments. Also, the recent change in ecommerce rules in India impacted the online dependent players," Narinder Kumar, Lead Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, said in a statement.

During Q1 2019, Samsung topped the overall mobile handset leaderboard with a 22 percent market share, followed by Xiaomi with 16 percent and LYF at 13 percent.

"It is interesting to note that shipments of top five smartphone players accounted for 83 percent of total smartphone shipments in Q1 2019. The hyper-competitive nature of the smartphone market saw intense competition, resulting in sequential decline by 10-12 per cent for both Xiaomi and Samsung shipments," said Prabhu Ram, head-industry intelligence group, CMR.

The Indian smartphone market saw the affordable smartphone segment (Rs 7,000- Rs 25,000) growing by 75 percent while the value for money segment (less than Rs 7,000) experienced a 22 percent growth.

The premium segment (Rs 25,001- Rs 50,000) grew at a flat 2.4 percent YoY.

First Published:May 16, 2019 5:55 PM IST