{
  "id": 16476089,
  "title": "Chinese cos lose India, one budget phone at a time",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/25/chinese-cos-lose-india-one-budget-phone-at-a-time",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-25T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/electronics/chinese-smartphone-brands-india-market-share-memory-chip-costs-budget-phones/articleshow/135175298.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "New Delhi: Chinese smartphone manufacturers' market share in India plunged to 67-68% in the July-September quarter, the lowest level in over eight years, as soaring memory chip prices forced them to slash prices on low-end models. Industry research firm Omdia predicts Chinese brands held 68% of the market, down from 71% in the previous quarter and 75% a year ago. The peak share was 80% in the April-June 2020 quarter.The dominant players, including Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi, are scaling back on budget devices, leaving space for Indian competitors like Lava and Ai+ to capture the attention of budget-conscious consumers ahead of the Diwali shopping season. Omdia's principal analyst, Sanyam Chaurasia, said Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are cutting costs by reducing specifications to offset the impact of high memory costs.\"What Chinese OEMs have been doing over the last four to five quarters is that they've been trying to cut down their specs to manage their costs,\" Chaurasia explained to ET. In addition, manufacturers have reduced the number of models in lower price tiers, focusing instead on mid- and premium segments to boost profitability.\"Record-high memory prices are changing the dynamics in the smartphone market,\" experts said, with Chinese companies suffering more than others due to razor-thin margins. Established global brands like Samsung and Apple are gaining ground with premium offerings, while domestic Indian brands like Lava and Ai+ are seizing the opportunity in the entry-level segment. In the last quarter, Indian brands' combined market share surged from 2% a year earlier to 7% in the September quarter, their highest share since October-December 2018. Companies like Ai+ and Lava accounted for nearly 95% of the growth within the Indian brands, alongside newer entrants such as Mivi and Boltt.Omdia estimates that smaller domestic brands shipped around 300,000-500,000 units per quarter, a level that would require strong distribution, inventory availability, after-sales support, and competitive channel economics to scale beyond. However, sustaining growth beyond this point may be challenging, according to experts. Omdia projects that such brands would need to focus on R&D, product quality, scalable customer service operations, and deeper localisation of the value chain to retain customers beyond their initial purchase.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}