For smartphone makers across the globe, India has undoubtedly been an extremely important market and every player is upping its game for a dominant market share in what is one of the largest smartphone markets globally.

This was in evidence in the figures now revealed for the second quarter of 2018. While Samsung and Xiaomi have been the runaway leaders in the Indian market, Xiaomi had pulled ahead of Samsung for a few quarters. But Q2 has seen the both smartphone makers drawing level with around 30% each of the overall market share, thereby dominating the market and leaving the others far behind. Over 9.9 million handsets get sold here, according to a report by Canalys.

In terms of specific models, the Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro and Xiaomi’s Redmi 5A stand out as largest selling with the latter clocking 3.3 million units. This could have been responsible for Xiaomi jumping 12% from its share in Q2 in 2017 to 30% this year. Samsung increased its market share in Q2 Y-O-Y by 5% (25% to 30%).

However, the report states that despite Xiaomi’s growth in India, Samsung will remain the first choice for consumers thanks to its ‘technological prowess and supply chain mastery’, which will give it an edge over Xiaomi.

The other two contenders, Vivo and Oppo have approximately 10-11% each with a lot of catching up to do. However, Apple is the only player that is still out of this equation. Internationally iPhones would fight for a place with Samsung, but in a highly price sensitive market like India, Apple has failed to register even a double-digit market share. The company is now trying to correct the situation and hopefully the iPhones maker will see better results out of products being locally assembled.

But Apple reportedly has a long-term strategy where the brand is more important than shipments. This way, it earns higher profit margins per device. Analysts say this strategy could eventually pay off.

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