Apple's iPhone X takes top premium smartphone spot in India, crushing OnePlus, Samsung

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2018
Despite intense competition from China's OnePlus, South Korea's Samsung and others, Apple has retained the lead in India's premium smartphone market, crushing Samsung (which exceeded Apple's share last year) and severely blunting the formerly rapid expansion of OnePlus.


Source: Counterpoint Research


According to new market data from Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research, Apple accounted for 47 percent of all smartphones priced above INR 30,000 (around $470 US or 380 Euros).

The release of Apple's new generation of iPhones helped drive OnePlus from 25 percent share in the September quarter down to 19 percent share in calendar Q4, while Samsung was again pushed into third place, a significant drop from its position near 30 percent one year ago, and its share above 50 percent last summer.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, "iPhone X was the leading model in the premium segment," the group reported, despite the notion of India being an emerging market that can't possibly afford such an expensive new premium model.iPhone X was the leading model in the premium segment

Despite competing against other "premium" handsets that sell for far less than half of its entry-level price (iPhone X has a starting price India of around $1,326 US), iPhone X accounted for 21 percent of all sales in the "$470 and up" premium category.

iPhone X outperformed sales of the second place OnePlus 5T by more than 23 percent, despite that phone being priced starting at about $520 in India. OnePlus is the premium-tier brand of BBK Electronics, which also sells Oppo and Vivo, two brands that are frequently described as being two separate Chinese companies.

Apple's iPhone X also bested Samsung's nearly as expensive third place Note 8 by more than 162 percent greater sales, prompting Samsung to slash its price in India in December.

Counterpoint noted that iPhone 7 also sold well in India, although it stated that "iPhone 8 remains soft and, as a result, the overall Apple shipments in the premium segment declined 31 percent YoY. The decline is also partly due to last year's strong quarter when sales of the iPhones spiked owing to demonetization and the high volume of cash transactions."

The report also noted that "the Indian premium smartphone segment grew 20 percent annually by volume and 28 percent by value in CY 2017."

In addition to dominating the high end, Apple is also working to expand the production of its less expensive iPhone SE and 6s models in India with local manufacturing by Wistron.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Okay.  

    I find this very hard to believe. 
    perpetual3saltyzip
  • Reply 2 of 24
    Rayz2016 said:
    Okay.  

    I find this very hard to believe. 
    “Top premium phone”, it’s the number one phone that cost over $470 in India, which is more believable.
    perpetual3SpamSandwichmavemufcksecwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 3 of 24
    India is Apple's foil for China. There's a long way to go, but you can see the direction.
    perpetual3igorskywatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 24
    igorskyigorsky Posts: 752member
    Rayz2016 said:
    Okay.  

    I find this very hard to believe. 
    Care to elaborate? What I find hard to believe is how all the "experts" are reporting the iPhone X as a failure while it keeps crushing it.
    netmageanantksundaramwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 5 of 24
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
  • Reply 6 of 24
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
    2.4 million people in India have money for an iPhone X. And the number could be higher, those are just the ones that accounted for.

    So your estimate is a bit off...
    netmagesingularitymuthuk_vanalingammwhiteslprescottavon b7anantksundaramJWSCwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 7 of 24
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
    Believe it or not. India GDP is the fourth largest in the world. Top three are China, EU, US.
    netmage
  • Reply 8 of 24
    sreesree Posts: 152member
    Rayz2016 said:
    Okay.  

    I find this very hard to believe. 
    Most people that comment about the buying power of indians have rarely visited india and definitely don't have an understanding of how vast and varied india is.

    Just the middle class in india is larger than the population of america. The rich might be small as a percentage of the population, but still the pure numbers will be larger than the population of many countries. The number of people who can easily afford an iphone X india is about the population of australia.
    muthuk_vanalingammmatzanantksundaramjony0
  • Reply 9 of 24
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
    2.4 million people in India have money for an iPhone X. And the number could be higher, those are just the ones that accounted for.

    So your estimate is a bit off...
    That number alone is minuscule in comparison to India’s total population, estimated at 1.33 billion people. And the chart provides percentages, not total numbers (all of which are likely extrapolated estimates). Percentages alone tell us nothing.
    edited January 2018
  • Reply 10 of 24
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    sree said:
    Rayz2016 said:
    Okay.  

    I find this very hard to believe. 
    Most people that comment about the buying power of indians have rarely visited india and definitely don't have an understanding of how vast and varied india is.

    Just the middle class in india is larger than the population of america. The rich might be small as a percentage of the population, but still the pure numbers will be larger than the population of many countries. The number of people who can easily afford an iphone X india is about the population of australia.
    Then I stand corrected.
    mmatz
  • Reply 11 of 24
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    sree said:
    Rayz2016 said:
    Okay.  

    I find this very hard to believe. 
    Most people that comment about the buying power of indians have rarely visited india and definitely don't have an understanding of how vast and varied india is.

    Just the middle class in india is larger than the population of america. The rich might be small as a percentage of the population, but still the pure numbers will be larger than the population of many countries. The number of people who can easily afford an iphone X india is about the population of australia.
    That's not true at all. With all the varying estimates of the middle class population of India, none of them put the population higher than the population of the U.S. Another issue is how they identify the middle class in India. It isn't actually the same as the middle class in western countries. If you go off the way the Indian government identifies middle class, it's only 29 million people.  
    SpamSandwich
  • Reply 12 of 24
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    tzeshan said:
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
    Believe it or not. India GDP is the fourth largest in the world. Top three are China, EU, US.
    Who cares about GDP? Income per capita is what people care. Well, even a poor ass country like Vietnam with $2000 income per capita still buy iPhone like crazy. It's their bling bling.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 24
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
    2.4 million people in India have money for an iPhone X. And the number could be higher, those are just the ones that accounted for.

    So your estimate is a bit off...

    I shared this information before, it one companies research so take it for what it is worth, it gives good idea of what is happen in India.

    As spamsandwich pointed out, it % no one knows the real number behind the %, however, I am more than willing to say the right answer is closer to 200 than 2.4M you claim exist. No one really know but, the large majority of the people in India can not afford an Apple product. In the US people complain about the top 1%, in india it is the tip 0.01%, at least the bottom 10% in the US live better than the bottom 90% in India.

    http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/macroeconomic-insights-folder/rise-of-the-india-consumer/report.pdf


    edited January 2018 SpamSandwich
  • Reply 14 of 24
    Gee, I thought the iPhone X was a total disaster, and Apple was doing terribly, and the batterygate thing was putting them out of business, and the HomePod was too little too late, and the entire company is basically doomed. Oh, that was just the bonehead speculators driving the stock back down again. My bad. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 24
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    This is a very confusing article...
     "Apple has retained the lead in India's premium smartphone market"

    "while Samsung was again pushed into third place, a significant drop from its position near 30 percent one year ago, and its share above 50 percent last summer


    "the overall Apple shipments in the premium segment declined 31 percent YoY"

    "the Indian premium smartphone segment grew 20 percent annually by volume and 28 percent by value in CY 2017."

    Yes, I'll have another cup of coffee please... It's me. 
    SpamSandwichsaltyzip
  • Reply 16 of 24
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.
    2.4 million people in India have money for an iPhone X. And the number could be higher, those are just the ones that accounted for.

    So your estimate is a bit off...
    His estimates on India are almost always off. And, not by accident...
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 17 of 24
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    The number of people working for foreign hitch companies is very large. These people are qualified as middle class.  Outside these people the income dropped a lot just like the Silicon Valley. 
  • Reply 18 of 24
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.

    This is simple math.  According to one interwebs site, the top 1% of India’s population controls 49% of the country’s wealth.  As that statistic implies, that 1% is disproportionately rich relative to the rest of the population, which totals around 1.324 billion.  That makes 13+ million potential smartphone buyers right there.  The real number is likely much higher.

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 24
    JWSC said:
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.

    This is simple math.  According to one interwebs site, the top 1% of India’s population controls 49% of the country’s wealth.  As that statistic implies, that 1% is disproportionately rich relative to the rest of the population, which totals around 1.324 billion.  That makes 13+ million potential smartphone buyers right there.  The real number is likely much higher.

    THIS chart clearly demonstrates why using percentages to make a point is not very helpful to understanding real numbers, however it can also show the vast difference between figures culled to gain eyeballs and the larger issue:

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/262157/market-share-held-by-mobile-operating-systems-in-india/


    edited January 2018
  • Reply 20 of 24
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    JWSC said:
    So Apple found maybe 200 people total in India with enough money to buy the X? India is an impoverished country, despite occasional small pockets of well off people. The Chinese middle and upper classes are far better off.

    This is simple math.  According to one interwebs site, the top 1% of India’s population controls 49% of the country’s wealth.  As that statistic implies, that 1% is disproportionately rich relative to the rest of the population, which totals around 1.324 billion.  That makes 13+ million potential smartphone buyers right there.  The real number is likely much higher.


    You know they could be rich in cow ownership. I am not sure what that Stat means in India. You know that the 10% in the US have 80% of the wealth which would imply that 90% the people in the US can not afford an iPhone. People choose to afford what they want, and on the flip side in India they choose not to spend their money on things like expensive phones, their preference at various income levels tend to be on pay less for things
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