Samsung tops India premium smartphone market in 2018 first half

New Delhi, Aug 17  South Korean giant Samsung dominated the premium smartphone segment in India in the first half of 2018 grabbing almost half the market share, a new report said on Friday.

According to CyberMedia Research (CMR) India's "Mobile Handset Review", Samsung with 48 per cent topped the premium market (Rs 30,000 and above), followed by Chinese smartphone player OnePlus with 25 per cent share and Apple at third with 22 per cent share.

"The premium smartphone segment, though small, is driven by aspirational, tech-savvy millennials and in the coming years, will continue to grow significantly. Samsung's flagship S9 helped it garner a lion's share of the premium smartphone segment," Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, said in a statement. 

One in two premium smartphones shipped in the first half of 2018 was a Samsung device.

"The success of OnePlus 6 can be traced to the intelligent brand strategy of packing the best specs at competitive price points, contributing to the emergence of a new 'budget premium' smartphone segment under sub-Rs 30,000," added Ram.

During the first half of 2018, OnePlus introduced its "OnePlus Experience Stores" and is planning to embrace offline in a big way, to complement its strong online presence.

The iPhone-maker suffered a decline in demand for its iPhones due to pricing challenges on account of post-duty increase.

"Apple is reworking its India strategy for the all-important second half of 2018, with new retail partnerships, first-party stores and service overhauling with India-focused apps and services, including refreshed Apple Maps," said Narinder Kumar, Lead Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.

Samsung led the first half on the back of its partnerships with telcos and e-commerce players, and aggressive promotional push, including attractive cash back offers and exchange benefits contributing to consumer demand remaining high.

"Going forward, the new ‘budget premium' segment will see an aggressive competition from market players, including ASUS, Huawei, Vivo, OPPO and likely new entrants, such as POCO from Xiaomi, taking the fight to established market leaders like Samsung, Apple and OnePlus," added Prabhu.