Micromax, Lava Bow Down to Xiaomi and Lenovo’s Rise in India

Chinese brands have doubled their efforts, while lack of intensity from domestic brands has hit them hard.

India’s dream of having a domestic mobile brand, competing with the elite, is not happening any time soon. The Chinese brigade of Xiaomi, Lenovo, Moto and Vivo, among others, are now part of a top 5 in the Indian mobile sector, where Samsung continues to lead.

However, what’s alarming is the downfall of brands like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn, who are merely confined to feature phones now.

According to latest IDC reports, the share of China-based vendors has gone up to 46 percent in Q4 2016, while the share of homegrown vendors stands at merely 19 percent in the same period. Xiaomi holds the fort for China-based mobile companies, with Lenovo (including Moto) and Oppo joining the big league in the top 5.

The fall in numbers have been attributed to demonetisation in November, which led to relatively lower consumer sales from November to December in the country. But the worry has got to be bigger than that. It’s been a while since Micromax or Lava have played big in the smartphone arena, failing to capitalise on the Jio fever.

Instead, this has helped Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo’s to get a foothold in the online as well as offline market.

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No wonder, Lava feels that shifting focus to features phones, with the first-of-kind Connect M1 4G VoLTE phone, which could make for a smart business move. Especially when over 109 million users still feel content with the non-internet, affordable devices.

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Samsung’s stay at the top is not a given, and it’s only due to their overall superiority all these years that the South Korean giant still feels invincible. With devices like the J2, Samsung taps the offline buyer, and those who still haven’t signed up to brands from China.

And with the Vivo and Gionees now on the verge of ‘Make in India’, as scary as it may sound, the scales could further move in favour of the Chinese counterparts. Clearly, Micromax and Co. have a big job ahead of themselves, running against the tide, to get over the competition.