India is one of the most lucrative smartphone markets on the planet and Samsung continues to enjoy a strong leadership position there. The company has been able to hold on to its lead despite tough competition from Chinese rivals.
Some of China's top smartphone vendors that also sell their products in India actually managed to push out all local manufacturers from the top five rankings in the final quarter of 2016. Samsung also shipped fewer smartphones in India during Q4 2016 due to mounting competition from Chinese rivals, but it held on to the lead.
The latest data from market analysis company Counterpoint Research reveals that Samsung leads the Indian smartphone market with a 24.1 percent market share. Samsung also leads the feature phone market with 26.6 percent market share.
It's the same story in Q2 2017, as well. No local manufacturer is in the top five. Samsung is followed by Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo. All four of them are based in China.
Segment-wise break-up shows that Samsung retains its top position in the premium segment as well with a 55 percent market share. The country's smartphone market overall saw a modest 4 percent year-over-year gain during the second quarter of 2017, according to Counterpoint Research.
Just because Samsung has held on to the lead doesn't mean it can rest on its laurels. With the pace that Chinese manufacturers have shown, the company has to work extra hard to ensure that it doesn't lose the top spot to any one of them.
