Over the last few months, we have heard several times that the Indian smartphone market has been dominated by China’s Xiaomi — a position that was previously ruled by Samsung for a considerably long time. While that may mark the fall of India’s ‘trustworthy’ smartphone consumer brand, Samsung has still got its agendas clear in the flagship smartphone segment. Why? Because the company has been recorded posting the highest sales figures in the flagship smartphone segment in India.
A recent study published by Counterpoint Research has detailed the market share of all the telecom brands in the flagship smartphone segment for Q1 2018. Three prominent brands have surfaced with decent numbers, out of which Samsung has posted the highest — 29 per cent of all flagship smartphone sales. The model responsible for this dominating score is their 2018 flagship Galaxy S9. The bigger Galaxy S9+ with a variable aperture dual camera consists of a total of 17 per cent market share whereas the smaller S9 consists of 12 per cent. Not only the S9, but even the slightly more affordable yet premium Galaxy A8+ (2019) also helped Samsung add a sizeable amount of numbers. Overall, Samsung comprised of a total of 50 per cent of all smartphone sold in the first quarter of 2018.
OnePlus followed suit with its lone surviving OnePlus 5T in the Indian market. The Chinese brand comprised a total of 25 per cent of market share in the first quarter of 2018, despite the company already teasing the successor of the 5T, which is due to launch on May 17. However, Apple finished third with a total share of 20 per cent in the market, despite having a robust lineup of premium smartphones. The research found that Apple’s sales primarily came in from older models, followed by the newer iPhone 8 and iPhone X models.
The Q2 2019 results could be different though as new players such as Huawei and Nokia are also venturing into the market with ultra-premium offerings. Also, it’s expected that Xiaomi could show up in this segment with their premium and bezel-less Mi MIX 2S in the coming months.
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