OnePlus makes it to the top of the Indian premium smartphone market again

Counterpoint Research has noted that the Indian premium smartphone market contracted by 32% in 2Q2020. However, this sector was not hit as hard as the overall space for such devices, which was found to have fallen by a total of 48% in the same 3 months.

The decline in the higher-end space (defined as those for devices costing INR 30,000 (~US$410) or more) was attributed to the lingering effects of the prolonged nationwide lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, during which "almost zero shipments" were completed at one point (April 2020 figures).

However, the premium sector may have bounced back thereafter, taking its "highest ever" share of the overall market (approximately 4%) in the same quarter. This was attributed in part to an appreciable diversity of products at this price range being available around that time, including OPPO's Find X2, Xiaomi's Mi 10 and Vivo's X50 Pro.

This may have helped the V19 smartphone from the latter OEM to take the #3 position in the Indian premium phone rankings by market share in 2Q2020, whereas the top 3 is normally virtually exclusively occupied by Apple, Samsung and OnePlus.

On that note, this company has taken its #1 spot back thanks to its latest 8 series. The vanilla model was the most popular premium device in 2Q2020, whereas the 8 Pro had the second highest share of the ultra-premium (>INR 40,000 or ~$550)) sector behind the Galaxy S20 Ultra. However, Apple retained the greatest share (42%) of the same by OEM, thanks to continuing demand for the iPhone 11 series in India.