Samsung leads the premium smartphone segment in India, says CMR

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Towards the end of last month, a report from Counterpoint Research crowned OnePlus as the largest premium smartphone vendor in India with a 40% market share. A new report from CyberMedia Research (CMR), however, says Samsung dominated the premium smartphone segment in the country with 48% market share in the first half of 2018.

Though the findings by the two firms appear contradictory at first glance, it may not necessarily be the case as CMR’s report is for H1 2018 (6 months) and Counterpoint’s report covers only Q2 2018 (3 months). Also, the Galaxy S9/S9+ hit the market in mid-March, while the OnePlus 6 went on sale in India towards the end of May, giving the Samsung flagship devices an edge in availability and thereby sales.

The early launch of the Galaxy S9/S9+ helped?

CMR placed OnePlus in the second position with 25% market share and Apple in the third place with 22% market share in the premium segment. While reporting Q2 earnings, Samsung acknowledged the sales of the Galaxy S9/S9+ were slow. Yet, an early launch and a poor show by Apple helped the Korean company fare better than others in the first half of 2018.

“The premium smartphone segment, though small, is driven by aspirational, tech-savvy millennials and in the coming years, will continue to grow significantly. Samsung's flagship S9 helped it garner a lion's share of the premium smartphone segment,” said Prabhu Ram, Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.