New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- You'll rarely find this brand's smartphones hyped up extensively. Their executives don't engage in personality-driven popularity contests. Its social media is old-fashioned marketing and not adversarial to the competition. And it isn't playing the specifications game in a specs-driven market like India.

And yet, as per recently released data from global market intelligence firm IDC, vivo (yes, the uncapitalized initial is deliberate) has surpassed brands like Samsung and Xiaomi for the leadership position in the Indian smartphone market with a 16.6% market-share in 2024, without taking into account sales of its subbrand iQOO, which had an additional market-share of 3.3% in 2024.

While its flagship X series (startin...