Samsung has reportedly sold more phones than Apple in the premium category of INR 30,000 and above in the year 2015-16. The surge is coming at a time when the Apple is looking at a greater play in the country amidst a global crunch. There was a time when HTC was considered a top player in the premium category phones in India. However, it has been losing steam steadily and is nowhere close to the top list since a couple of years. According to data collated and compiled by CounterPoint Technology, Samsung’s share in the premium end of the phone market in India stood at 47% in 2015-16. Apple recorded 45%.
The growth of Samsung has been fuelled by S6 Edge and Note 5 smart devices. These devices had also seen a price cut towards the beginning of this year. The Korean Giant was trailing behind Apple in 2014-15 with just 35% of the market share, while Apple had a good 43%. Experts from the industry said Apple and Samsung have been engaged in a fight of supremacy in the premium market, but Samsung has taken an ‘edge’ recently. Tarun Pathak, a research analyst at CounterPoint said, the Edge series has been going strong for Samsung and has helped the company regain share in the premium segment. The worrying part for Apple is that its new ‘SE’ device has been disappointing in India over its high pricing. The company is expected to see a spike only when it launches iPhone 7.
Retail market tracker GfK has provided numbers for March 2016 and March 2015. These numbers show that Apple is behind Samsung. In March this year, Samsung was leading with a volume share of 56% and value share of 55.7%, while Apple lagged with a volume share of 37.9% and value share of 39.5%. In March 2015, GfK numbers show that Apple was leading in both the categories.
