India's smartphone market showed a robust recovery in the April–June quarter of 2025, with shipments rising 7% year-over-year to 39 million units.
The recovery was largely due to better inventory conditions and higher vendor activity, said the latest research from Canalys, which is now owned by Omdia.
The report points out that the spike in shipments was primarily led by a tidal wave of new product launches in the second quarter. This came after a muted Q1, with smartphone vendors shying away from driving stock due to oversupply build-up.
"Rising competition outside the top five is transforming India's smartphone market, as premium incumbents and design-focused challengers adapt their playbooks," explained Sanyam Chaurasia, Canalys Principal Analyst.
For the Q2 2025 rankings, Apple took the sixth spot, with the fresh iPhone 16 series contributing over 55% of its overall shipments. Meanwhile, previous models such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 13 also found favor with several different price groups.
In smartphone brands, Vivo (not including its subsidiary brand iQOO) occupied the top spot with 8.1 million units shipped and a 21% market share. Samsung took the second spot with 6.2 million units and a 16% market share. OPPO (not including OnePlus) took third place with 5 million units, beating Xiaomi with also 5 million units shipped. realme completed the top five with 3.6 million units shipped.
Looking forward, Chaurasia added, "With limited organic demand, India's smartphone market in H2 2025 will rely more on channel execution than product launches."
As festivals near, distribution strategies are gaining traction among smartphone brands to propel sales. Most are introducing aggressive channel incentive programs, where monetary rewards ranging from international holiday packages to cars are provided on the basis of performance during such key shopping seasons as Monsoon Sales, Durga Puja, and Diwali.
At the same time, retailers are also spending on renovating their in-store infrastructure, such as better booth designs, neat shelf layouts, and more stringent targets for in-store promoters to improve visibility and interactions.
To continue enticing consumers, particularly for mid- and premium-range smartphones, brands are increasing their financing plans. Longer tenures are being introduced to bring phones within reach and affordability for more people.
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