Premium Smartphone Market In India by Vendors Share – Q4 2016 – Q3 2019

The below graph represents the premium smartphone shipments share in India, by quarter. The top three premium brands – Samsung, OnePlus and Apple – continue to dominate India's premium smartphone market, collectively accounted for a 90% share of the total shipments in Q3 2019.

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The above graph represents the premium smartphone market in India by vendors share, from Q4 2016 to Q3 2019. The top three premium brands – Samsung, OnePlus and Apple – continue to dominate India’s premium smartphone market, collectively accounted for 90% of the premium segment shipments in Q3 2019 as compared to 83% in Q3 2018. OnePlus regained the top spot in India’s premium smartphone market with its highest ever shipment share of 35%. This is followed by Samsung and Apple, accounted for 23% and 22% share of India’s premium segment in Q3 2019, respectively.

India Premium Smartphone Market: History

RegionIndia
SourceCounterpoint Research
Graph ID213
DurationCY Q4 2016 – Q3 2019

The 2019 year started with Samsung reclaiming its lost position. In Q1 2019, Samsung once again regained its lost pole position in India premium segment (≥₹30,000 or roughly ≥US$430), capturing nearly 45% share. Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus were the best-selling models in India in Q1 2019.

Meanwhile, OnePlus’s share in India’s premium segment dropped to 25% in Q1 2019, from 36% in Q4 2018. However, it’s almost the same compared to a year ago quarter (Q1 2018). It is important to note that OnePlus was ruling the top spot in India premium smartphone segment between Q2 2018 to Q4 2018. Interestingly, OnePlus 6T remained India’s best-selling premium smartphone in Q1 2019, a title it has held since its launch.

Apple continues to struggle in India’s premium segment, mainly due to its high pricing strategy and heavy import duty on its iPhone devices.

OnePlus dominated the premium smartphone market in 2018 by capturing the pole position in three quarters in a row. OnePlus widened the lead over Samsung in Q4 2018 as the premium smartphone shipment share of OnePlus in India swelled to 36% while Samsung shrank to just 26%.

In the last two years, OnePlus continued to strengthen its share of the premium smartphone market in India with each passing quarter. From accounting just 8% of the premium smartphone market in India in Q1 2017 to 36% in Q4 2018, OnePlus growth story in India is exceptional.

The declining market share of Samsung in the premium smartphone market in India is quite worrisome for the management of the global leader of the smartphone industry. While Samsung has somehow managed to keep the minimum of the damage, it’s Apple who is on the losing end in India.

Apple’s market share of the premium smartphone in India has tanked to half in the last two years.

Premium Smartphone Market India: Additional Information

The number of active smartphone users in India is an estimated 337 million by the end of 2018. As the penetration of smartphone in India is increasing, a sizeable number of early adopters of smartphones are graduating from entry and mid-level smartphones to a premium range of devices.

It is estimated that premium smartphone shipments in India will grow by 30% in 2019, due to rising incomes, increasing competition, and high spending power of the consumers.


The above graph is a part of Dazeinfo GraphFarm – the most trusted source of hundreds of thousands of market graphs. Our team of researchers mines millions of data points every month to bring the most updated and validated set of data points representing the comprehensive view in a graphical format. From mobile to e-commerce, from Retail to healthcare, from startups to SMEs we have carefully designed thousands of graphs for those who value and understand the importance of data visualisation.

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