OnePlus celebrates premium sales lead in India with dig at Apple

OnePlus has taken to Twitter to take a cheeky dig at Apple after the latest report by Counterpoint Research called them the highest selling premium smartphone brand in India.

The research firm recently issued their quarterly market analysis report for India, covering sales and shipment figures for smartphone manufacturers. According to the report, OnePlus managed to capture a 36 percent share of the premium smartphone market in India for Q4 2018. This is the third consecutive quarter where the company has led market shipments.

To celebrate their win, OnePlus posted a tweet that invokes Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, to ask about the best selling premium smartphone in India. Considering their chief competitor is Samsung, we’d imagine OnePlus might have wanted to call out Bixby instead!

While Samsung still maintained an overall lead across the year with higher shipments, the gap is now extremely narrow. Indeed, Samsung will have to be very aggressive with the Galaxy S10 as well as devices like the Galaxy A9 to improve on the 34 percent share they currently enjoy in India. OnePlus follows right on their tails with a 33 percent overall market share.

Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus have a combined 92 percent hold on the premium smartphone market in India. Apple’s overall sales have however dipped 25 percent year-on-year due to the eye-searing price points for newer models. At their last earnings call, Tim Cook agreed that the high pricing has led to slower shipments and more users are holding on to older smartphones. 

OnePlus too has been consistently increasing prices with every successive model. The OnePlus 6T currently retails for 37,999 rupees (~$534) for the base variant, which is an increase over the 34,999 rupees (~$492) price for the base variant of the OnePlus 6.

As Samsung doubles down on their strategy to recapture the mid-range and affordable flagship segment, do you think OnePlus will be able to continue their streak? Let us know in the comments.

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