Samsung Pips Apple in India's Premium Smartphone Segment

BENGALURU: As was the case in the 2015 October-December quarter, Samsung and Apple are no longer neck to neck when it comes to India's premium smartphone segment. The South Korean handset maker has clearly outpaced its Cupertino-based competitor to emerge as the market leader in India's premium smartphone segment in the January-March quarter of 2016. This is spurred by the successful launch of Galaxy S7 last month along with the price cuts of its earlier popular models such as Galaxy S6 and Note 5, reports ET.

As per two of the biggest outfits tracking handset sales in India—Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) and Counterpoint Research, Samsung has pulled ahead of Apple in the high-value Rs 30,000-plus smartphone segment. According to GfK, Samsung's lead in the premium segment has widened substantially with the company’s market share amounting to 51 percent in the January-March quarter to Apple's 41 percent. “The impact of Galaxy S7 sales was for half of March and the full impact will be in the current quarter,” said Counterpoint Research Senior Analyst Tarun Pathak. “We expect Samsung to further expand its lead in the premium segment considering iPhone SE has received a lukewarm response until now.”

Responding to the drop in sales, Apple has asked distributors in India to stop arbitrary discounting on iPhones and bring about online and offline pricing parity. Industry executives believe the huge online discounting on iPhones which had led the brick-and-mortar stores to cut down stock has played a major role in the Tim Cook led company losing ground in India.

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