Chinese handsets storm India

Vivo Communication Technology Co Ltd smartphones are sold together with other global brands at an electronics store in New Delhi.[Provided to China Daily]

"Chinese brands see the Indian market as the biggest gold mine after China," said TZ Wong, a Singapore-based smartphone analyst at research company Canalys.

"The two markets are very similar for the vendors. The only difference was India was a few quarters behind China in terms of demand."

India's emerging appetite for smartphones is spurred by the country's gigantic population of 1-billion-plus, second only to China. Increasing middle-class incomes have also pushed online shopping to the forefront.

This is nearly a rerun of China's situation five years ago when the trend of getting touch-screen phones started to kick off.

A total of 28.3 million smartphones were shipped to India in the third quarter, a 21.4 percent surge compared to a year ago, according to IDC, another consultancy.

Large-screen smartphones priced around 10,000 rupees are the best-selling devices in India, it added. The skill sets of Chinese manufacturers and local buying habits fit well.

Quickly growing startups, with vivo and Xiaomi leading the charge, are already busy in India, while traditional electronics giants such as Lenovo and ZTE Corp may use a different strategy.

A few kilometers south to Kumar's bazar shop, middle-class shoppers are buying Sony cameras and Hewlett-Packard laptops at an electronics store in Connaught Place, a major commerce and financial center in New Delhi.

Lenovo devices are the only handset bearing a Chinese logo waiting for buyers at the Croma outlet, an electronics chain store under Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group.

Samsung Electronics Co's Galaxy series, HTC Corp's 60,000-rupee pamphlets and Microsoft Corp's Windows phones with colorful cases are popular products at thousands of Croma stores in New Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and many smaller cities.

Chinese brands are also rare in Mobiliti World, another brick-and-mortar consumer electronics store chain.