IDC: Indian smartphone market remained flat in 2025 | Infinium-tech

The latest IDC report claims that after a rough start in early 2025, the Indian smartphone market recovered in the middle of the year and registered a modest growth of 0.5% year-on-year by the end. Manufacturers shipped 152 million units, and despite flat market conditions, some smartphone makers capitalized, largely due to changing consumer preferences.

Consumers in India are becoming more interested in high-end smartphones, demanding premium and feature-rich models. This is evidenced by a 9% year-over-year price increase and an increase in the average selling price, which increased 4% year-over-year to $279.

Apple led the segment and reached a solid market share of 29% by value. Interestingly, India is still the fourth largest market for Apple after the US, China and Japan. The company’s overall smartphone market share stood at 10% and stood at fifth position.

Vivo remains the market leader with 19.3% market share, followed by Samsung at second with 14.1% and Oppo in the top three with 13.3% share. Realme recorded a 9.5% decline in shipments but remained firmly in fourth place. OnePlus, Xiaomi and Poco are the worst performers with sales declining by 38.8%, 29.3% and 24.8% throughout 2025.

Nevertheless, in the entry-level segment (sub-$100), Xiaomi and Vivo are the undisputed leaders, with over 40% market share.

The mass-budget leaders ($100-200) are Vivo, Oppo and Motorola. The entry-premium ($200-400) market was led by Vivo, Samsung, and Motorola, while Samsung and Oppo dominated the mid-premium ($400-600) category. The reasonable premium ($600-800) market is dominated by Apple with 74% share, largely due to its strong iPhone 15, 16 and 17 sales. These three phones accounted for more than 65% of all shipments in the category.

The same applies for the super-premium ($800+) segment, where Apple reigns with 63% share, followed by Samsung, which recorded 80% growth in sales, reaching 34% market share.

Notably, only the entry-level, mid-premium, premium and super-premium categories recorded growth in 2025, with the premium category standing out with 37% growth year-on-year. The performance of mid-premium is also noteworthy, expanding by 23%.

Perhaps due to rising wages across the country, Indian consumers are gradually adopting more premium devices. And when Xiaomi declined, other manufacturers capitalized. For example, iQOO, Motorola and Nothing are the fastest growing brands in the country in 2025.

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