Chennai: With smartphones making inroads at unprecedented levels, backed by affordable data plans from telcos, shipments of handsets in the country surged past 37 million units, growing by a per cent, in the June quarter.
However, premium smartphones which are priced at Rs 30,000 and above grew by 33 per cent in the quarter compared to the year-ago period, according to Counterpoint Research.
“This growth was mainly driven by new flagship launches from OnePlus in terms of OnePlus 7 series, price cuts from Apple for its iPhone XR and aggressive promotions from Samsung for Galaxy S10 series. Second quarter was the first-ever quarter when premium segment had the highest number of models, offering wide variety of choice for consumers,” Counterpoint said in a statement.
As a result, the total shipment volumes in the premium segment reached an all-time high, it added. Counterpoint, however, did not specify the number of smartphones shipped during the quarter.
“As more brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and Huawei enter this segment, this segment is going to be hyper-competitive in the second half of 2019, great for consumers,” it said.
The combined share of OnePlus, Samsung and Apple was 85 per cent during the said quarter, down from 88 per cent a year ago, signaling this trend, it added.
OnePlus captured its highest ever shipment share of 43 per cent in this segment, followed by Samsung (22 per cent) and Apple (20 per cent).
“As Indian smartphone consumers become more mature and are looking to buy their second or third smartphone, the premium segment is becoming a key battle ground to acquire these premium consumers. The new brands to watch out which could disrupt with premium features with offerings lurking around Rs 30,000 price points are Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo and Asus lowering the barriers for consumers with aggressive flagship-grade offerings,” Counterpoint said.
Vikas Agarwal, General Manager at OnePlus India, said that the company is “excited about growing the premium smartphone segment that is under-penetrated for several years with less than five per cent share of the total smartphone segment”.
| Apple logs double-digit growth |
| Tech giant Apple said it has ‘bounced back’ in the the Indian market as the company saw strong double-digit growth in the country in the June quarter.
Apple clocked one per cent year-on-year growth in revenue at $53.8 billion for the quarter ended June. International sales accounted for 59 per cent of the quarter’s topline. The company, however, does not give out country-specific numbers. “…we have emerging markets where we have low penetration and during the quarter tactically, emerging markets had a bit of a rebound. In fact on a constant currency basis, we actually grew slightly in emerging markets…India bounced back during the quarter. We returned to growth there. We are very happy with that,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an investor call. Luca Maestri, the company’s chief financial officer, noted that Apple grew in ‘strong double digits in India and in Brazil’, and set new third quarter records in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. |