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A worker at a Samsung store in New Delhi, India, introduces shoppers to mobile phone products. (courtesy of Samsung Electronics)

Apple’s dominance in India’s 1.4 billion-person smartphone market is continuing to grow, threatening the current market leader Samsung Electronics.

According to data from Counterpoint Technology Market Research on Sunday, Apple shipped its highest-ever quarterly shipments of 2.5 million units in the Indian smartphone market in the third quarter (July-September) this year, which is 34% more than the same period in 2022.

Apple’s market share in India is now 5.0%, showing a year-over-year growth of 1 percentage point. Apple is rapidly growing its dominance in the premium smartphone market, considering that the company’s focus is on products with an average selling price of more than US$950.

India has always been a market centered on mid-range smartphones, with the average price of all smartphones sold last year being US$250.

In the third quarter, Samsung remained the market leader in India with a 17.2% market share, but this was down by 2.3 percentage points from the same quarter last year. Chinese companies Xiaomi and Vivo have 16.6% and 15.9% of the market, respectively.

India is one of the world’s most promising regions for smartphone market growth. With a population of over 1.4 billion, its smartphone penetration rate is just over 50%. In particular, the premium smartphone market (US$600+) only makes up 17% of the market, so the industry expects this market to grow rapidly.

By Ock Kee-won, staff reporter

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