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Consumers Favor High-end Smartphones in 2016

In India, the high-end smartphone market is expected to grow by 19 per cent this year. The sudden growth is because of customers’ shift in interest in premium brands like Samsung and Apple, research firm CMR said today.

The high-end smartphones, which are priced INR 20,000 and above in the country, have accounted to 7 per cent of the total smartphones sold last year and grew at 15 per cent in 2015.

“Out of a total of 163 smartphone brands, only 19 brands shipped smartphones in the high-end price band in 2015, indicating high entry barriers and the brand loyalty enjoyed by incumbent brands in the segment,” CMR said in a report.

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46 brands shipped smartphones in the sub-INR 20,000 category, whereas 153 brands shipped handsets in the sub-INR 10,000 category, the report added. The high-end smartphone market is expected to grow 19 per cent in 2016 as against 15 per cent in the previous year, it said.

In 2015, Samsung and Apple increased the market share in the high-end brand to 44 per cent and 27.3 per cent, respectively. On the other hand, Sony (8.3 per cent) and HTC (7.6 per cent) lost market share during the period.

OnePlus is the only emerging brand to make it to the list of top five in the same price point in 2015, cornering six per cent share in 2015, the report said.

In the high end brand segment, Samsung and Apple will continue to be strong players, CMR expects young brands like Gionee, Huawei, Vivo and Lenovo to make some commendable inroads.

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“Post 2013, we saw smartphones booming in India and a fair installed base is now ready for replacement and our observation is that approximately 70 per cent of the users would go for an upgrade to a higher-end smartphone rather than replacement in the same price segment,” CMR Lead Analyst, Telecoms Faisal Kawoosa, said. The upgrade is in terms of functionality, feature set and of course the price, he added.

The report said emerging brands are now expected to shake up the high-end market after “successfully rippling the low and entry-level smartphone market.”

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