India is a very price sensitive market, while the sales of flagships too is pretty high, the majority of the market is dominated by the low and mid-range. Samsung has been the market leader in terms of share for quite some time now, but that domination seems to be under threat.

A few years back, Samsung faced the same type of situation against local companies like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn. But those days are long gone, these companies hardly have a share now after the introduction of foreign makers competing in the same segment. Chinese makers like Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo, Honor and OnePlus have been quick to gain in a matter of couple of years. These brands took a combined share of over 50 percent in 2016, compared to just 19 percent a year ago according to a research firm, Counterpoint.

Samsung, the most popular smartphone brand in India, dominated nearly 30% market share just over a year ago that has now slipped 21%. In the $120 to $440 smartphone segment, Chinese smartphone manufacturers have more than doubled their presence in India with a 68 percent market share. Samsung’s market share, on the other hand, decreased by 14 percentage points since November 2015 in this segment.

Chinese brands have tried their best to localize their products under the Make in India banner as well as having a massive marketing campaign in place. Vivo’s blue and Oppo’s green have literally taken over quite a lot of hoardings. The progress is also fueled by a very good offline distribution system in place.

The main reason that consumers opt for these products is, they offer a better price-performance ratio than big industry names such as Samsung. HTC seems to have long gone while LG is struggling.

Source: Reuters

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