Samsung, not Apple, leads India's premium smartphone segment

Samsung, the South Korean multinational conglomerate, has left behind Apple to be the market leader of India's premium smartphone segment in the first quarter of 2016. This could be attributed to two things, one, the successful launch of Galaxy S7, and two, the slashed prices of its earlier popular models, like Galaxy S6 and Note 5.

In the preceding quarter, (October-December 2015), these two companies were in a neck-to-neck competition, so much so that market research agencies were not able to decide who was ahead of whom. However, this time, Samsung has taken a clear lead in the Rs 30,000-plus smartphone segment, according to both GfK and Counterpoint Research, two biggest agencies that track handset sales in India.

As per the Hong Kong-based shipment tracker Counterpoint Research, Samsung's volume share in the first quarter of 2016 rose to 62% from 35% in the preceding quarter. On the other hand, Apple's share fell to 37% from 55%.

As per GfK, Samsung’s market share in the said quarter is 50% as opposed to Apple's 41%.

The fall in Apple's share has come despite a rise of 56% in iPhone sales revenue in India, a market it is hopeful of, especially when it has registered a drop in its quarterly sales for the first time in 13 years.

Also read: Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, says India is almost a decade behind China

"The impact of Galaxy S7 sales was for half month in March and the full impact will be in the current quarter whereby we expect Samsung may further expand its lead in the premium segment considering iPhone SE has been lukewarm demand till now," said Counterpoint Research Senior Analyst Tarun Pathak.

As per industry executives, the reason behind Apple’s fall in market share could also be huge online discounting, because of which the brick-and-mortar stores have cut down on their iPhone stocks, something which forced Apple to take the tough decision of keeping both online and offline prices same.

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