Samsung has been on top of India's smartphone market for a few years now, its current market share stands at 48 percent. Market research agency Counterpoint Research has come up with a new report which claims that Samsung is going to lose a significant chunk of its market share in the high-end segment due to the Galaxy Note 7 crisis and strong potential of the iPhone 7.
The report estimates that Samsung had a 58 percent share in India's high-end smartphone market in the third quarter of this year, only handsets priced at Rs. 30,000 ($450) and above are included in this segment. It's predicted that the market share in this segment is going to see a significant decline in the October-December quarter this year and that Samsung would not be able to benefit from the usual increase in sales due to the festive season.
Counterpoint's preliminary forecast is that Samsung's market share in the high-end segment could fall down to 35 percent which would be the lowest for Samsung in many years. Apple's share is expected to climb to 57 percent on the back of strong iPhone 7 sales. Manu Sharma, VP for Samsung's mobile business in India, rubbished the forecast, saying that “We don't agree at all. In fact, we are doing exceedingly well with record sales in mobile business and the festive season has started on a high for us. We continue to sustain our leadership position across all price points.” He has already said the company is leaning on the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge to drive festive sales in India this quarter and is confident that it will see an increase in market share.
