Flipkart claims lead over Amazon in smartphones

Flipkart has kept its lead over Amazon India on smartphone sales, even as both platforms claimed more than doubling of sales in the category on the second day of festive sales. Flipkart claimed to have sold 1.3 million smartphones in the first 20 hours, double the number of orders as compared to the same period last year.

Flipkart had seen overall sales of Rs 1,400 crore in a single day last year during the smartphone sales day. The company did not disclose gross sales number. Flipkart also claimed an overall market share of 65% of online sales, and 75% in smartphone category since the start of its flagship Big Billion Day event on Wednesday. Amazon claimed a higher growth in sales in the smartphone category.

"We have already seen a 100% increase over previous Diwali, even before the end of Day One. For smartphones, we saw an even larger gain, that grew 150% over 2016," said an Amazon spokesperson.

Analysts tracking the sales are saying that gross merchandise value (GMV) on Thursday could have crossed Rs 2,500 crore. "Overall, on Day 1 of sales on Wednesday, the industry saw a GMV of Rs 1,000 crore," said Anil Kumar, CEO, RedSeer.

Among the best selling phones on Flipkart were iPhones and Redmi Flipkart were iPhones and Redmi Note 4 as well as Samsung S7 and S8, Flipkart's Smrithi Ravichandran said. Amazon did not respond to specific queries till the time of going to print.
Amazon kicked off its Great Indian Festival for all customers on Thursday, after giving an early access to Prime customers for 12 hours on Wednesday, in which it saw large appliances emerging as the biggest category.
Industry experts said both platforms changed prices on some products to match deals that did well on rival platform, especially on products like MacBook Air and iPhones. The trend during day two on cashback website CashKaro was that top players Flipkart and Amazon India were neck-toneck on their smartphone sale war, because of price-matching.

"When Flipkart started their sale at midnight, they had very good pricing on iPhone, which Amazon matched within the night," said Swati Bhargava, cofounder, CashKaro. "Alternatively, MacBook Air price was lower on Amazon, which was matched by Flipkart."

However, Paytm Mall, the third player in the ecommerce sales war, claimed to have the lowest prices across platforms. The company received smartphone orders from customers across 700 cities and town within 24 hours, with iPhones and Samsung Galaxy J3 Pro emerging as the top-selling smartphones, registering 12x surge in order volume over regular days. 

Diwali Sale 2016, smartphone deals on Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal

Diwali Sale is back on popular e-commerce platform and its raining deals on smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices. Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal – the top three ecommerce platforms are offering exciting deals with cashback and exchange offers. Amazon is also giving early access to select deals for its Prime customers, who also get one day delivery for free with Prime shipping.

Amazon and Flipkart are giving away biggest discount on their platform exclusive products. Amazon, which has been offering Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus at an attractive discount since Dussehra, is continuing with the offer along with some new smartphones launched very recently. Flipkart, on the other hand, is offering exchange discount on Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus along with bank offers. Snapdeal is trying to woo consumers towards other electronic peripherals this Diwali.

Here is a look at top deals across all the three major ecommerce platforms:

Smartphones:

1. Moto G4 Plus:

Amazon is offering Rs 2,000 discount on Moto G4, which was launched at a starting price of Rs 12,499 in India. This is the third such discount on Moto G4 since the launch. Moto G4 is the latest from Motorola to counter the growing poipularity of devices like Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 and Coolpad’s Note series. Moto G4 features a tweaked design with textured back for superior grip and a 5.5-inch full HD display. Moto G4 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor and can be purchased in two variants – 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and 3GB RAM, 32GB storage. The smartphone is backed by a 3,000mAh battery with support for Motorola’s turbo charging feature. Moto G4 features 13MP primary camera with dual LED flash and a 5MP front facing camera.

Moto G4 lacks fingerprint scanner but makes up for it with a near stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. Motorola has also started Android 7.0 Nougat update for G4 and G4 Plus, which means you will have latest Android OS even before some of the flagship smartphones.

2. Nubia Z11 mini:

Nubia is making a comeback in the Indian smartphone space with its Z11 mini smartphone. Nubia, a sub-brand of ZTE, is trying to pitch Z11 mini as an ideal smartphone. In our review, we were highly impressed by the capabilities of Z11 mini camera.

Nubia Z11 mini is a compact smartphone with 5-inch Full HD display and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage onboard. The Nubia Z11 mini’s USP is its 16MP Sony-made CMOS IMX298 image sensor, which lets you controls photo parameters like DSLR.

In our review, we noticed the camera allows to “shoot in macro and wide angle which even top-end phones struggle with now.” The smartphone is backed by a 2,800mAh battery and offers premium build with rear facing fingerprint sensor.

3. Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus:

Diwali is also one of the best time to get yourself a flagship smartphone. Flipkart is offering exchange discount of up to Rs 23,500 on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. There is also a flat Rs 7,000 cashback on Citibank credit cards.

Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus start at Rs 60,000 and go all the way up to Rs 92,000, which is inline with last year’s pricing. Apple has not renewed the design of iPhone lineup this time but there is huge improvements in the departments like camera, performance and display. Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus feature same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays but with up to 25 per cent more brightness and support wide colour gamut.

The latest iPhones are powered by Apple’s A10 Fusion chipset clocked at 2.23GHz, which beats most mobile benchmarks in terms of numbers. The new iPhones are faster and are also capable of processing 4K videos on the go. With iPhone 7, Apple has made OIS standard and introduces six-element f/1.8 aperture lens. The iPhone 7 Plus gets an additional 12MP f/2.8 sensor equivalent to 56mm for shooting telephoto images. The bigger iPhone 7 also offers an option to shoot portrait with shallow depth of field.

4. Samsung Galaxy On8:

The Galaxy On8 is the latest in company’s On series of online exlusive smartphones. Samsung Galaxy On8 is available exclusively on Flipkart at Rs 15,900 with exchange discount up to Rs 13,000 and option for no cost EMI.

Samsung Galaxy On8 features a 5.5-inch Full HD display and is powered Samsung’s Exynos 7580 processor coupled with 3GB RAM and 16GB expandable storage. The smartphone features a 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera. 

Flipkart is also offering a 32GB microSD card free with the smartphone.

5. Le 1s Eco:

LeEco’s Le 1s Eco, the Chinese smartphone maker’s ecosystem friendly device is now available on Flipkart at Rs 8,999. The smartphone was launched in India at Rs 9,999 with features like free access to live TV and access to on-demand content.

Le 1s Eco features a 5.5-inch Full HD display, 3GB RAM, octa-core MediaTek processor and 32GB storage. The smartphone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with EUI on top of it. 

6. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:

Xiaomi has made a strong comeback in India’s smartphone market with Redmi Note 3. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is the best selling smartphone yet for the Chinese company. Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with 32GB storage is now available on Snapdeal at Rs 11,999.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 features a 5.5-inch full HD display and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 650 processor. The smartphone comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. The highlight here is the huge 4,050mAh battery packed in a 8.65mm thick chassy.