India feature phone market declines 68% in Q2, itel leads

With the COVID-19 pandemic leading people to cut on discretionary spending, India feature phone market declined 68 percent (year-on-year) in the second quarter this year, a Counterpoint Research report said.

New Delhi: The nationwide lockdown imposed by the Indian government to combat COVID-19 resulted in zero shipments during April. This was also the time that saw a huge exodus of migrants from cities as many of them lost livelihood.

As per the report, itel remains the market leader. Just a year ago, itel's share was a mere 10 percent in the same market.

Findings of the Counterpoint Research report

Moreover, Jio-Google's recently announced partnership to bring highly affordable 4G Android smartphones may further impact the feature phone market in India which is home to more than 350 million feature phone users.

The growing anti-China sentiment due to border tensions in Ladakh has "given a window of opportunity for brands like Samsung and local Indian brands such as Micromax and Lava, to recapture market share," according to Shilpi Jain, the Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research.

(Inputs from IANS)