The Indian government wants to stop Chinese smartphone manufacturers from selling sub-INR 12,000 ($150/€147) phones in the country, Bloomberg reports.
Given that they sell a lot of smartphones in India that are priced under Rs. 12,000 ($150), Xiaomi, realme, and Transsion would be the most impacted by this move. Counterpoint estimates that for the three months ending June 2022, sales of smartphones in this price range in India accounted for one-third of the country’s total sales volume. Up to 80% of those shipments were made by Chinese brands.
The purpose of prohibiting Chinese companies from selling smartphones in India’s sub Rs. 12,000 ($150) market is to give domestic competitors like Lava and Micromax the opportunity to increase their sales in this segment and reclaim market share.
Prior to being undercut by Chinese brands, which provided better specs at lower prices and eventually came to dominate the second-largest smartphone market in the world, the combined sales of both companies accounted for just under 50% of India’s smartphone sales. According to Counterpoint, Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, realme, and OPPO were the top five smartphone brands in India through Q2 2022, with Samsung being the lone non-Chinese company on the list.
While the Indian government has not yet commented on this, this development comes at a time when Xiaomi, Vivo, and OPPO, three Chinese smartphone brands, are under investigation by the Indian government for engaging in illegal business activities in the nation, such as money laundering and tax evasion.
After a clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the Himalayan border over two years ago, increased tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations. The Indian government also banned hundreds of Chinese apps and games in India, including PUBG.
