Chinese brands dominate India's smartphone market

BEIJING - Chinese smartphone brands dominated the Indian market thanks to successful localization, according to a global tech industry analysis firm.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi led the Indian market with shipments close to 8.2 million units in Q4 2017 while Samsung shipped just over 7.3 million smartphones to take second place, according to Canalys.

Together, the top two vendors now command more than half of the smartphone market in India, with market leader Xiaomi at 27 percent and second-place Samsung at 25 percent.

Canalys research analyst Ishan Dutt attributed Xiaomi's rapid progress to successful localization in channel strategy, marketing and products.

Chinese counterparts Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo rounded out the top five, according to Canalys.

China produced fewer mobile phones last year as home market gradually becomes saturated. Shipments of domestic mobile phone brands fell by 12.4 percent year-on-year to reach 436 million last year, official data showed.