From hero to zero, before you knew what hit you. In the cut-throat world of smartphones, it has been a recurring story—from Nokia dominating the scene at one time to going ‘crash-boom-bang’, to BlackBerry’s transition from everybody’s buddy to a nobody.
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi would truly understand it. A decade ago, it stole the thunder of desi smartphone brands like Micromax and Lava with a slew of inexpensive but feature-rich smartphones through brands like Redmi, Mi and the sub-brand Poco. It soon became the largest seller of mobile phones in the country. Even the Covid-19 pandemic and the anti-China sentiment post the clashes in Ladakh did not slow it down. But then it got hit by a curious shift in the Indian consumers’ preferences.
About a year ago or so, more and more Indians began coveting premium phones, moving away from Xiaomi’s budget offerings. With the market share of phones costing less than ₹10,000 falling significantly, Samsung overtook Xiaomi as India’s top-selling phone brand.
Premium smartphones sales more than doubled in the April-June period, while sales of the ultra-premium foldable phones tripled last year. This is when the overall smartphone market declined 3 per cent.
This new trend could solidify now, as Diwali sales hit a crescendo. “Many people time their purchases with the festive season, and they are increasingly opting for premium smartphones,” Arushi Chawla, senior analyst with Counterpoint Research wrote in a blogpost.
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