According to the latest report by counterpoint, India’s smartphone shipments grew 23% YoY to reach over 38 million units in Q1 2021. These were the highest ever first-quarter shipments and over 95% part of this market is occupied by non-Indian companies.
In the above, listed by counterpoint, you can see the actual number and market share of different companies in India. As you can see you don’t find any companies that belong to India. There are so many reasons why Indian companies were crushed by the Chinese, one of them is offering value for money.
There are still some Indian Smartphone brands that are still trying to compete against Chinese smartphones and recently popular brands like Micromax announced a comeback and launched a couple of Smartphones in India. Here is the list of Indian Smartphone brands along with other brands making Smartphones in India.
List of Indian Smartphone companies
1. Micromax
Micromax is a popular Indian brand in India long ago. Once a dominant player in the smartphone segment, Micromax gradually faded away because of competition from Chinese smartphone brands.
Recently, the company has announced new smartphones under the “in” brand. These smartphones are good but as always Chinese brands announced a new version of their smartphones and Micromax is unable to match them. Currently, Micromax is planning to launch new refreshed models.
- Founded: 29 March 2000, Delhi
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: more than 40+
- Manufacturing: 60% in India and 40% in china
- Sub brands – YU
2. Lava
Lava is another popular Indian smartphone brand that makes feature phones and a few android Smartphones. Along with Micromax, Lava announced a comeback to the Indian market with its new smartphone called Z4, Z2 max, and more. Instead of launching a direct competitor to Chinese smartphones, the company took a separate approach.
Lava announces customizable phone that allows customers to select from the available RAM, storage, rear camera, front camera, and color options along with the Zup program to let customers upgrade their existing Lava phone within a year. This seems to be a futuristic approach but the company failed to grab the attention of Chinese brands.
The company has said it will shift the production base of all of its phones meant for exports to India from China. The company will also shift its design center to the country very soon.
- Founded: 2009
- Status: active
- Number of smartphones launched: more than 40+
- Sub brands – XOLO
3. RELIANCE JIO
RELIANCE JIO, the leader of the Indian telecom smartphone business also makes smartphones. Jio has announced two new Smartphones back in August 2017 and jio phone 2 back in July 2018. Now, the company has partnered with Google and announced a new Jio Phone Next that runs of custom android OS developed together with Google and also said it will be the most affordable 4G smartphone.
Unlike other smartphone brands, Reliance Jio targets a different segment of people. The company wants to move 3G users to 4G users and use their services. So far the company is successful. According to Reliance Jio held the highest share of subscribers, at over 34 percent, in the wireless network market across India as of September 2020.
Published by Statista Research Department, Feb 17, 2021
Reliance Jio’s wireless subscriber share increased from over 23 percent in December 2018 to over 32 percent in December 2019. This accounted for over 370 million subscribers as of 2019. The Reliance Industries’ owned digital services company ranked second just after Vodafone India Limited that year.
Wireless subscribers share of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited from December 2018 to December 2019
See also:
- Best smartphones under 10000 rupees in India 2021 ( Updated!)
- Best Smartphones Under 15000 rupees in India 2021 (Updated!)
- 10 Best Smartphones Under 20000 Rupees in India (Updated!)
- Best smartphones Under 30000 Rupees in India for 2021 (Updated!)
4. Intex mobile
Intex is another popular smartphone brand back in 2014. Similar to Micromax the company huge range of products – Smartphones, LED TVs, Speakers, Tablets, Feature Phones, ACs, UPS, Coolers, etc. Currently, we haven’t heard anything about Intex
Similar to other Indian smartphone brands, Intex India completely failed to recognize the threat from Chinese brands. The company also failed to predict the 4G shifts caused by Reliance Jio.
”No Indian player was ready for the sudden shift from 3G to 4G in the market last year,” told Nidhi Markanday, Director, Intex Technologies. ( Telecom.com )
- Founded : 1996, Delhi
- Status : Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
5. Karbonn
Karbonn is a popular brand known for making feature phones and tablets. The company also launched a couple of Android smartphones. Recently the company announced KARBONN X21 priced at 5000 rupees in India.
- Founded : 2014
- Status : Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
6. iBall
iBall is another popular Indian brand known for making smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets like speakers, mouse and more. The company is actively launching different products. I haven’t seen any smartphones from iBall but there are a bunch of new Tablets and other gadgets like speakers, mice, and more.
- Founded: 2001
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
See also:
- Best smartphones under 10000 rupees in India 2021 ( Updated!)
- Best Smartphones Under 15000 rupees in India 2021 (Updated!)
- 10 Best Smartphones Under 20000 Rupees in India (Updated!)
- Best smartphones Under 30000 Rupees in India for 2021 (Updated!)
7. Celkon
Celkon is another popular Indian mobile manufacturer that offers features phones and smartphones in the budget segment. Celkon has a manufacturing facility in Telangana, India. The company is still active and launching feature smartphones and other Gadgets. Most of them are unavailable when I checked on Flipkart.
- Founded: 2009
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
8. Spice mobiles
Spice is another Indian smartphone brand that offers features and android phones. Currently, most of them are temporarily unavailable and there is no word on future launches yet. The company was founded in 2000.
- Founded: 2000
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
9. Smartron
Smartron was launched in 2017 by Mr. Mahesh Lingareddy along with the famous cricketer Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. The company makes several products smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
The company announced the t.phone P back in July 2018 which received positive feedback from the users. Later the company announced a bunch of laptops but quickly faded away from the Indian market. As of now, there is no word on future launches.
- Founded: 2016
- Status: partially active
- Number of smartphones launched: below 10
10. iKall
iKall is another popular Indian mobile manufacturer that offers features phones and smartphones in the budget segment. Currently, the company sells few android Smartphones, tablets, and features smartphones.
So this is the list of Indian popular smartphone brands. Most of them are still active but none of them are able to compete with Chinese smartphone brands. There are a few other brands in India that are not Chinese but give good competition to Chinese smartphones.
- Founded: 2015
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
List of non-Chinese mobile brands in India
1. Asus – Taiwan
Asus is well known and popular mobile brand in India. The company was also hit by Chinese brands but quickly made comeback with the Zenfone Max series but quickly discontinued without a proper reason. The company currently sells flagship Smartphones like the Asus ROG gaming smartphones and traditional Zenfone ( Z series ) smartphones in India.
- Founded: 1989
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
See also:
- Best smartphones under 10000 rupees in India 2021 ( Updated!)
- Best Smartphones Under 15000 rupees in India 2021 (Updated!)
- 10 Best Smartphones Under 20000 Rupees in India (Updated!)
- Best smartphones Under 30000 Rupees in India for 2021 (Updated!)
2. Samsung
You already know about Samsung. Samsung is one of the biggest smartphone sellers in Samsung has two factories – in Noida and Tamil Nadu, where it makes 90% of the handsets it sells in the country – and three R&D facilities.
- Founded: 1938
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 500+
3. Apple
Similar to Samsung, Apple is also the biggest player in the Indian market. The company sells premium Smartphones that cost way Higher than any smartphone brand in India. The company started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 with iPhone SE. It now manufactures the iPhone SE 2020, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11 in India through its contract partners Foxconn and Wistron
- Founded: 1976
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
4. Google
Google along with its software services also has its own hardware products like Google pixel, Google home, and other Google products. Google hardware products aren’t competitive as other companies like Apple, Samsung but Google is hoping to set up with Google pixel 6 which is soon going to launch.
- Founded: 1998
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 10+
5. Nokia
Nokia, the iconic company that made feature smartphones is brought by HMD global. Under the new brand, Nokia launched few smartphones but they aren’t successful as Chinese. As of now, HMD global with a partnership with Flipkart launches new TVs, Acs, and even laptops.
The company also has its own manufacturing plant in Chennai where it manufactures both mobile devices and network infrastructure equipment.
- Founded: 1865
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
6. Lg
Lg recently announced the company is moving out of the smartphone business. In India, LG’S failure is mainly because of its poor marketing and higher costs.
- Founded : 2014
- Status : Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
7. Sony
Back in 2019, Sony Corporation has announced to quit the Indian smartphone market because of Chinese dominant players. Sony had less than 0.01 percent of the total Indian smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2019.
However, the company assured that it would continue its customer support operations including after-sales support and software updates for existing customers in India.
- Founded : 2014
- Status : Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
8. HTC
HTC left the Indian market back in 2018 because of the same reason why LG and sony left. The company Founded in 1997 as a laptop manufacturer, Taiwan-based HTC soon began making smartphones based on Windows Mobile and Brew. It released the first commercial Android smartphone.
- Founded: 1997
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
See also:
- Best smartphones under 10000 rupees in India 2021 ( Updated!)
- Best Smartphones Under 15000 rupees in India 2021 (Updated!)
- 10 Best Smartphones Under 20000 Rupees in India (Updated!)
- Best smartphones Under 30000 Rupees in India for 2021 (Updated!)
9. Blackberry
Blackberry is popular for selling smartphones with physical keyboards. We haven’t seen any new Launches from the company. The company ditched its own BB Os and started making smartphones that run on Android OS.
This is the list of non – Indian smartphone brands. Similar to Indian smartphone brands few of them also struggled with Chinese dominant players and even left the country. And other players like Samsung, Apple, Asus continue to post a threat to Chinese smartphones brands
To get closer to Indian users and sound like made in India brand, a few Chinese Smartphone makers also established manufacturing plants in India. Below, I have listed some of the few Chinese smartphone brands which own manufacturing plants in India.
- Founded: 1984
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
List of Popular Chinese smartphone brands in India
1. Xiaomi
Xiaomi the biggest player in the Indian market for the last few quarters has its own manufacturing plants in India (TN, Andhra Pradesh, UP).
- Founded: 2010
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 300+
2. BBK electronics
You might not be familiar with this name before but it is the actual parent company of Oppo, Realme, Vivo, OnePlus, iQOO. The company has its own manufacturing unit in Noida (Uttar Pradesh).
- Founded: 1998
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 1000+
3. Huawei, Honor
After Google banning the Android license to Huawei smartphones, Huawei left all major countries including India. As of now, Huawei has no plans to launch any smartphones in India as of now.
- Founded: 1987
- Status: Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 200+
4. Motorola and Lenovo
Motorola was earlier a U.S. company, but now it is owned By Lenovo – The Chinese smartphone company that makes smartphones, laptops, and more.
So, this is the list of popular Chinese smartphone brands that have manufacturing plants in India.
- Founded : 1984
- Status : Active
- Number of smartphones launched: 40+
Update: PLI scheme for mobile phone manufacturing which helps companies to set up manufacturing plants in India is now extended until 2025-26. Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that this scheme for a period of 2020-21 till 2024-25 has been extended by one year till 2025-26. This means we can see more companies set up manufacturing plants in India.
See also:
- Best smartphones under 10000 rupees in India 2021 ( Updated!)
- Best Smartphones Under 15000 rupees in India 2021 (Updated!)
- 10 Best Smartphones Under 20000 Rupees in India (Updated!)
- Best smartphones Under 30000 Rupees in India for 2021 (Updated!)
Frequently Asked Questions
Which mobile phones are made by India?
As of now, only a few smartphones are made in India. These smartphones include Micromax in Series, Samsung smartphones, Xiaomi smartphones, Oppo smartphones, Oneplus smartphones, and more
What is the PLI scheme for mobile phone manufacturing?
(PLI) Schemes for Mobile Manufacturing and Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing that provides an incentive of 6% to 4% on incremental sales of goods under target segments that are manufactured in India, for a period of five years.
Which is the Indian smartphone company?
Micromax, Lava, Karbon, Celkon, Spice, Jio, iBall, iKall, and more are Indian smartphone companies
