Samsung Takes The Lead In Premium Smartphone Segment From OnePlus In India

Anita - May 13, 2019

OnePlus has lost its top position to Samsung in the premium smartphone segment in India in the first quarter of 2019 due to the uptake of Galaxy S10 series.

South Korean phone maker, Samsung beat OnePlus to stand at the no.1 position in the high-end phone segment in India in Q1, 2019 after 3 consecutive years behind OnePlus, as per Counterpoint Research. The initial uptake for the latest Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup brought the company to the top position in the high-end segment.

3 leading premium brands comprising of Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus took up 90% market share of the high-end smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2019, down 5% year-on-year. OnePlus ranked second since this company underwent the seasonal cycle. But the OnePlus 6T was still the best selling high-end phone in Q1 2019 since its debut.

According to Counterpoint’s Research Analyst, Mobile Devices - Karn Chauhan, the success of the Galaxy S10 lineup and the OnePlus 6T smartphone highlights the rising trend of the high-end segment in the Indian market.

In addition, as per the GfK’s data, Samsung accounted for 76.5% share in volume and 77% share in value in the price segment of over Rs. 30,000 in March, which means 3 out of 4 smartphones shipped in the high-end segment in March were the Galaxy S10 phones.

According to Aditya Babbar, Director of Mobile Business at Samsung India, with the Galaxy S10 series, the company provided customers an amazing experience meeting their daily needs. The top-of-the-line features of the Galaxy S10 series have been well-received by customers, therefore it is not surprising when the company regained the no.1 position in the high-end segment.

Other brands such as Huawei took up the rest 10% of the premium segment volumes. It is known that Huawei P and Mate series debuted in the Indian market recently and drew a lot of attention. Meanwhile, Apple is still facing a decline in its share due to its extremely high prices.

Chauhan added:

Besides, with its upcoming mid-range Pixel variant, the search-engine giant Google has an opportunity to begin things from scratch in several emerging markets such as India in which the share of the high-end segment is still small but going up fast, as per the report.