For the past three consecutive quarters, Chinese manufacturer OnePlus has held the crown in India as the premium smartphone market leader. When the company took that crown away from Samsung, it was a bit of a shock — almost like a David and Goliath story.
However, according to a recent report from Counterpoint Research, that reign is over. Counterpoint reports that Samsung is now back on top of the premium smartphone market in India, demoting OnePlus to second place.
The OnePlus 6T was still the best-selling premium smartphone in India for Q1 2019, though, so it’s not all bad news for the company.
Check out how OnePlus’ ride at the top went as compared to Samsung and Apple below:
The likely explanation for the switching of positions between the two companies is the lack of any new smartphones from OnePlus combined with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S10 line, among other releases. It’s possible, with the imminent release of the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro, that OnePlus could regain the top spot for Q2 2019. We’ll have to wait and see.
Counterpoint mentions that the mid-range Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL could cause some strife for Samsung, Apple, and OnePlus when it comes to developing markets such as India. However, the Indian pricing for the 3a line is a little high which might instead cause the phone to flop. Once again, we’ll have to see how that pans out for Q2’s results.
Counterpoint estimates that the overall Indian premium market will grow by up to 30 percent in 2019, which represents a major opportunity for all smartphone brands.
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