There are nearly 650 million users in India -- and over 300 million of them have a For these users, Chinese players became the first choice this year as they launched devices with compelling features, thus dominating the budget and mid-range price segment in the country.

Chinese vendors captured 49 per cent of the Indian handset market in the first quarter of 2017 -- with a 180 per cent (year-on-year) revenue growth -- threatening to wipe out domestic players from the overall handset segment.

Among the top Chinese brands, witnessed the biggest growth this year.

With a market share of 23.5 per cent and having shipped 9.2 million smartphones in the third quarter this year, became the fastest-growing brand with a growth rate of nearly 300 per cent (year-on-year) in the third quarter this year.

According to IDC, had 23.5 per cent market share in India, similar to Xiaomi, the Lenovo- combine was at 9 per cent, at 8.5 per cent and at 7.9 per cent.

For Xiaomi, its Redmi Note 4 device that was launched in January at Rs 9,999 for the base model (2GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage) proved to be a game-changer and its best-selling too. The company shipped approximately four million units of the device in this quarter, said IDC.

Chinese brands like (which sells its youth-centric sub-brand in India), Vivo, (a Lenovo brand) and OPPO's performance remained strong and contributed to more than half of the total smartphone shipments in the country.

Aiming to push its position up in the highly competitive Indian market, launched flagship products at "unbeatable prices", like the highly-successful 8 Pro (Rs 29,999) and Honor 7X (starting at Rs 12,999).

and OPPO's aggressive marketing spends also paid them hefty dividends. With smartphone growth nearing saturation in metros, Chinese players were also busy building their base in tier II and III cities.

When it comes to manufacturing in India, announced its third plant in the country based out of Noida and the first facility for power banks in partnership with Hipad

Spread across 230,000 square feet, the Noida unit is a dedicated facility for Xiaomi power banks where the Mi Power Bank 2i will be assembled. The company already has two smartphone manufacturing plants in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, where more than 95 per cent of its smartphones sold in India is assembled locally.

Meanwhile, South Korean giant also announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant to double the production capacity of both and consumer electronics.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved OPPO's request to open single-brand retail stores in the country. With this decision, became the first smartphone company to get this opportunity in India.

The Chinese players also handled the post-demonetisation ripples well with high decibel marketing, increased credit line to distributors and efficient channel management.

Global vendors, led by Samsung, were able to withstand the aggressive Chinese players post-demonetisation owing to their good distributor coverage and penetration in the Indian market.

Aiming to gain a further foothold in the offline smartphone market, Xiaomi opened its first "Mi Home" store in Bengaluru in May and plans to add 100 such stores in the next two years.

Similarly, Lenovo-owned opened six "Moto Hubs" in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and plans to open 50 more by the end of this year.

Huawei's sub-brand Honor announced opening four more exclusive service centres in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Guwahati. Its service centres are already operating in 17 cities.

India this year surpassed the US to become the second-largest in the world after Yet, according to Counterpoint Research, only one fourth of India's population uses smartphones, thus making the country an attractive destination for Chinese players in the mobile ecosystem.

Highlights