Vivo leads India’s smartphone market while Apple earns the most

Vivo continues to lead India’s smartphone market with a 20% volume share in Q4 2025, followed by Samsung and Oppo, noted Counterpoint Research. Apple recorded highest value growth of 28% year-over-year (YoY), and the iPhone 16 was the top-shipped model in 2025.

The research firm said that shipments declined 4% YoY in Q4 2025 due to inventory correction after the festive season and managed rising component costs. Overall, the market grew a modest 1% YoY in volume but a stronger 8% YoY in value due to premiumisation.

Motorola (54% YoY) was the fastest-growing smartphone brand in India in 2025 by volume. Nothing was the fastest-growing OEM in Q4 2025, with 32% YoY volume growth. CMF became the fastest-growing sub-brand in 2025, getting 83% YoY volume growth.

Samsung led the foldable smartphone segment in 2025 with 88% volume share and 28% YoY volume growth, followed by Motorola.

Premium segment (30,000+) emerged as the fastest-growing in 2025 in volume, expanding 11% YoY and accounting for 22% of overall shipments, with an annual value growth of 8% YoY.

In mainline retail, financing penetration reached 40% of overall smartphone volume sales in 2025. In the premium segment (30,000+), nearly two-thirds of purchases were financed.

The online channel recorded double-digit value growth in 2025 due to aggressive promotions and festive-season offers on premium models, outperforming the offline channel in terms of value growth.

Higher battery capacity, particularly in silicon-carbon batteries, is emerging as a key trend in India’s smartphone market. With average battery sizes up ~9% YoY, OEMs are increasingly leveraging bigger batteries as a high-impact differentiator, especially as rising memory prices weigh on mid-segment demand.

In 2026, India’s smartphone market is projected to see a single-digit volume decline as rising memory and component costs weigh on demand, especially in the sub-15,000 segment.