OnePlus, the premium Chinese smartphone maker has successfully become more prominent has topped the Indian premium smartphone market battle, beating Samsung and Apple.
With the predominant Chinese players in the smartphone market ranging from Rs 10,000 to 20,000, this news signals the start of Chinese dominance in the premium segment as well. OnePlus has emerged as a leader in the Rs 30,000-plus Indian smartphone market, where earlier, players like Samsung and Apple took a lead.
“The launch of the new model — OnePlus 6, the one-model-a-year strategy, strong partnership with Amazon, whereby we leverage their resources, and offline expansion in partnership with Croma, and the five offline and one experience stores has helped us connect with the Indian consumers,” said OnePlus India general manager Vikas Agarwal. “The fact that we have become the leader in a leaner season gives us the big platform ahead of the festival season.”
Since the launch of its new model OnePlus 6, the company’s popularity boomed up and gained significant share in the April-June quarter. Agarwal also stated that OnePlus had become the largest premium brand in India in little over three years.
As stated in Hong Kong-based tracker Counterpoint Research, OnePlus reached over 40% share in the premium segment in the April-June quarter compared to 9% in the same period last year.
We’re just getting started here ?https://t.co/xNmbEcQ8oa pic.twitter.com/Lvrql9i140
— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) July 31, 2018
Samsung now holds the second position with 35% share and Apple, for the first time, has reached the third spot in India with a record of less than 14% share. With this, the Chinese smartphone makers have captured a majority portion of the Indian smartphone buyers. Apart from OnePlus, other Chinese brands such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi will also launch smartphones in the premium smartphone space.
“The premium segment is becoming crowded. Chinese brands have ramped up their distribution, understand the market much better and will create pressure for Apple and Samsung who have dominated till now,” said Neil Shah, Counterpoint Research partner and research director. “The Rs 30,000-40,000 segment has become a sweet spot where OnePlus operates with several consumers buying their second or third handset preferring the brand. The price difference with iPhone X and Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is very high,” he added.
The researchers claim that the Chinese players at present control 62% share of Indian market which was earlier 17% in 2014. And now that OnePlus will set up 10 offline stores and four experience stores by the end of this financial year, the company is sure to get more popularity in India.