OnePlus has the edge on Samsung and Apple again in one key global market

by Adrian Diaconescu / Oct 24, 2018, 7:09 AM

OnePlus has the edge on Samsung and Apple again in one key global market

OnePlus may not be very big in the US... just yet, but believe it or not, the still-tiny company that only releases two phones every year is bigger than both Apple and Samsung in another essential global market.

While it remains virtually impossible for OnePlus to lead in total Indian smartphone shipments, the brand that claims to “never settle” continues to dominate the country’s so-called “premium” segment.

For the second quarter in a row, OnePlus devices accounted for the highest percentage of sales in the $400+ price bracket, namely 30 percent between July and September, down from a towering 40 percent share in the April - June timeframe.

Of course, with the 5T out of the equation, the OnePlus 6 managed to score that 30 percent on its own, which is a pretty incredible feat. In fact, Counterpoint Research estimates the OP6 became the brand’s best-selling product ever within a measly five months of its launch. No wonder there’s so much buzz in India around the OnePlus 6T.

Meanwhile, “strong” initial demand for the Galaxy Note 9 was obviously not enough to get Samsung back in the premium market segment’s first place, as Galaxy S9 sales numbers unsurprisingly declined.

Apple, which was at the top of the chart a year ago, had to settle for the last spot on the podium this time around, even though the iPhone XS and XS Max did manage to considerably boost the company’s shrinking numbers from the previous two quarters.

It remains to be seen if Cupertino can indeed “serve everyone”, as the iPhone XR clearly has a better chance to connect with an audience still mainly focused on affordability. Altogether, OnePlus, Samsung, and Apple combined to account for a staggering yet declining 83 percent of the overall premium market in India.

source: Counterpoint Research

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15 Comments

1. Boast_Rider

Posts: 535; Member since: Sep 14, 2017

Indian here. OnePlus is impossible to beat in India, at least by Samsung and Apple. the iPhone XS max costs more than 3x of OP6 and the S9+ costs 2x of OP6. Combine that with the s**t-tier wages Indians get and the rest two are out of reach of most Indians. On top of that, Apple maps, siri and iMessage don't work as well in India, which is most of the Appeal of iOS. Samsung also sells the inferior exynos variants in India, which have lower battery life and performance. XS max costs the same as 10 months rent in major cities of India, just to give a sense of how expensive it is to Indians relatively.