BENGALURU: A recent report from the CMR (Cyber Media Research) suggests that Apple and Samsung continues to hold the top position in the Indian market of premium smartphones with a share of about 27.3 and 44 percent respectively.

The report also points out that One Plus, a newbie in this segment has also managed to create an impact with a 6 percent share. Whereas smartphone giants such as Sony, LG and HTC that once dominated the Indian market lost their shares as most users preferred optimum brand reliability above the 20,000 price range.

7 percent of the total smartphone market is occupied by premium range smartphones. About 52 percent of it includes phones priced at Rs 30,000 and above, while rest of the total market includes Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 price range phones. In the aforementioned Rs 30,000 price category, last year’s report suggests that Samsung lead the market with 46.1 percent share, followed by Apple with 43.8 percent. Sony, HTC and Lenovo were included in the next three positions in the same order. In 2016, the premium smartphone market is expected to experience a considerable increase in share gain. In the Rs 20,000 price level about 46 brands offered smartphones and 153 brands offered handsets below the Rs 10,000 price tag. Only 19 brands introduced their smartphones in the high-end price range (Rs 20,000 or above) out of a total count of about 163 smartphone brands. The figures effectively indicate the high entry barriers and overall brand loyalty benefited by industry leading brands.

"The high-end smartphone market is expected to grow 19% in 2016 as against 15% in the previous year," says Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst, Telecoms, CMR.

CMR expects approximately 70 percent of the users to upgrade their existing phones to higher end smartphones in terms of functionalities, features and price; rather than opting for replacement in the same price range. The latest and trending feature of virtual reality will be effectively fabricated by several high-end smartphone brands.

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