Price war in premium phone segment heats up

New Delhi: In a sign of intense competition in the premium smartphone segment in India, the price gaps among the top brands are narrowing ahead of the launch of OnePlus 7 series on May 14.

Apple, Samsung and Google have recently cut the prices of their premium smartphones in India. Apple has even reduced the price of iPhone XR by up to Rs 23,000.

"Global OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are now looking at India more seriously when it comes to the premium smartphone segment," Hanish Bhatia, senior analyst, Devices and Ecosystem, Counterpoint Research, said.

"Price cuts are a part of the pricing strategy to trim down the huge price gap between competitor offerings," Bhatia added.

The smartphone market in India is the world's second biggest after China, but the premium segment (above Rs 35,000) constituted just three per cent of this market that shipped 142.3 million units in 2018, according to the market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

This relatively smaller market is definitely less crowded than the budget segment, but that does not mean the competition is less intense.