Counterpoint: India's smartphone market shrinks by 3% in Q2, premium segment grows 112%

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A new analysis from Counterpoint reveals the free fall of the Indian smartphone market might be coming to an end. Overall shipments dropped just 3% compared to Q1, which is less than analysts expected.

Counterpoint researchers believe that the improving market conditions and declining inflation had a good impact on sales. In fact, the premium smartphone segment saw a whipping 112% growth year-over-year. That seems to be in line with previous analysis claiming that the maturing Indian market is slowly shifting towards more expensive smartphones. That’s part of the reason why Xiaomi is falling behind in the race.

Samsung sold the most smartphones in the country with 18% share in Q2 2023, followed by vivo, Xiaomi, Realme and Oppo, in that order.

As far as the premium market is concerned, Samsung finally overtook Apple thanks to good offers on its foldables, older Galaxy S22 lineup and the S21 FE. Additionally, Samsung’s Finance+ program helped a bunch. But when it comes to the ultra-premium market above INR 45,000, Apple is still the top performer with 59% share. Interestingly enough, India is now in Apple’s top five markets, the Cupertino company finally gaining some traction after so many years of negligible sales there.

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