Apple and OnePlus become first and second rank smartphones

After rapidly losing ground to Xiaomi in the overall Smartphone rankings, market leader Samsung has lost not just its top spot in the premium segment to Apple in the July-September period, but has been relegated for the first time ever to No 3 behind OnePlus in a segment that is seeing competition like never before. Samsung, however, disputed the findings of Counterpoint Research and said it continued to lead the segment by end-sales.

Fight for the top spot in the high-end segment Rs 30,000 and above is set to heat up further in November with players like Google, Xiaomi and Nokia in the fray, making life for Apple and Samsung which have historically dominated this segment far tougher. Sector watchers expect these brands to offer discounts or bundled offers in this segment to get buyers amid the heightened competition. Apple, for example, is believed to be tying up with Airtel to sell its super premium product on the telco's recently launched online store.

Tarun Pathak, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research said “Samsung’s share dropped to 31% from 55% in the previous quarter as premium segment (above Rs 30,000) was driven more by Rs 30,000-40,000 band due to OnePlus and older iPhone models, due to which majority of the volume of the segment was skewed towards Rs 30,000-40,000 sub segment where Samsung is not that strong. Samsung is going to find it tough to get back in terms of volumes, as the price gap between its flagships and those of competitors like Xiaomi and OnePlus, is quite large in premium segment. There will be increased competition in the premium segment, with a much larger number of players than typical Apple-Samsung, with Xiaomi, Google and others coming in”.

Samsung disputed the agency data saying that the share of phones sold in the market was highest amongst competition. The company's market share by volume was 65.2% and 65.4% by value, in the above Rs 30,000 segment, Samsung India’s senior vice president for mobile business Asim Warsi said, citing data from German research firm GfK which tracks sales to end-consumers.

Analysts add that while Xiaomi and Google can make a dent in the segment, as both have devices priced at lower than competition, Apple will want to keep its lead in the present quarter with iPhone X, which has seen strong demand. Apple though is facing huge supply issues for the super-premium device.