Indian premium smartphone market soars, OnePlus continues to grow

During Q3 2019, the Indian premium smartphone market reached record-high shipments with the leading brands still being OnePlus, Samsung and Apple.

The price segment above INR 30,000 ($493) grew a staggering 66% compared to Q3 2018. Counterpoint outlines the early offers ahead of the festive season in the country and the aggressive offers through various channels to be the main reason for the excellent performance.

OnePlus is still leading with 35% share followed by Samsung and Apple with 23% and 22% cuts, respectively. OnePlus, however, grew an impressive 95% YoY thanks to its OnePlus 7 and 7T-series smartphones. With a wider portfolio, the company is able to offer different tiers to its customers, which, of course, drives the sales up.

For the very same reason Samsung and Apple were able to take a significant piece of the pie with their wide selection of models - Samsung has two Galaxy Note10 and three Galaxy S10 models and Apple has three new iPhones.

Still, the top 3 brands' total share declined from 83% in Q3 2018 down to 79% in Q3 2019 suggesting that Xiaomi, Asus and Oppo grew even faster. After all, 20 new flagships were introduced during this quarter.

With all being said, the Indian premium segment is still a small fraction of the whole market accounting for just 5% of the volume in the country. This means that it has room to grow in the coming years and it has a long way to go compared to the US where premium segment captures 50% of the volume and even China with its 22%.

Source