Samsung tops India premium smartphone market in 2018 first half
New Delhi, Aug 17 : South Korean giant Samsung dominated the premium smartphone segment in India in the first half of 2018 grabbing almost half the market share, a new report said on Friday.
According to CyberMedia Research (CMR) India's "Mobile Handset Review", Samsung with 48 per cent topped the premium market (Rs 30,000 and above), followed by Chinese smartphone player OnePlus with 25 per cent share and Apple at third with 22 per cent share.
"The premium smartphone segment, though small, is driven by aspirational, tech-savvy millennials and in the coming years, will continue to grow significantly. Samsung's flagship S9 helped it garner a lion's share of the premium smartphone segment," Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, said in a statement.
One in two premium smartphones shipped in the first half of 2018 was a Samsung device.
"The success of OnePlus 6 can be traced to the intelligent brand strategy of packing the best specs at competitive price points, contributing to the emergence of a new 'budget premium' smartphone segment under sub-Rs 30,000," added Ram.
During the first half of 2018, OnePlus introduced its "OnePlus Experience Stores" and is planning to embrace offline in a big way, to complement its strong online presence.
The iPhone-maker suffered a decline in demand for its iPhones due to pricing challenges on account of post-duty increase.
"Apple is reworking its India strategy for the all-important second half of 2018, with new retail partnerships, first-party stores and service overhauling with India-focused apps and services, including refreshed Apple Maps," said Narinder Kumar, Lead Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.
Samsung led the first half on the back of its partnerships with telcos and e-commerce players, and aggressive promotional push, including attractive cash back offers and exchange benefits contributing to consumer demand remaining high.
"Going forward, the new ‘budget premium' segment will see an aggressive competition from market players, including ASUS, Huawei, Vivo, OPPO and likely new entrants, such as POCO from Xiaomi, taking the fight to established market leaders like Samsung, Apple and OnePlus," added Prabhu.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Court allows 5-day police custody of Bibhav Kumar in Swati Maliwal assault case
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court allowed five-day custodial interrogation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar in the Swati Maliwal assault case, sing the police remand was a "necessity" in the matter.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal was hearing the application of Delhi Police which was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava. The police had sought seven day custody.
It is alleged that Kumar, who is Kejriwal's personal assistant, assaulted AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM's residence on May 13.
"Considering the submissions made on behalf of both the parties, I find there is a necessity of police custody remand in the present case. Accordingly, the application moved by the investigating officer (IO) is partly allowed and the accused is remanded to police custody for five days," the court said in its order passed around 12:45 AM Sunday.
It noted the prosecution's submissions about the need to take Kumar to Mumbai and other parts of the national capital to collect evidence, which was not possible without the accused's custody.
"Admittedly, the case is at a nascent stage. Allegations made in the FIR are corroborated in her (Maliwal's) statement recorded by the magistrate on oath and further, it is again corroborated in the medico-legal case (MLC) of the victim or complainant," the court said.
The magistrate also observed, "I am aware of the view of constitutional courts that the opportunity must be given to the investigating agency to complete the investigation in order to reach the truth of the matter but at the same time the rights of the accused are also to be protected."
Asking the Investigating Officer to take Kumar into formal custody, the court directed his medical examination every 24 hours and said the investigating agency would not subject the accused to "any torture."
It also allowed Kumar to meet his advocate and wife for half an hour each during the police custody.
Kumar's application for providing requisite medicines was also allowed.
The proceedings which commenced around 9: 15 PM Saturday saw initial arguments by Srivastava following which the magistrate said, "I find force in the arguments of the APP (Additional Public Prosecutor) that there were sufficient grounds to arrest the accused without notice."
The prosecutor made several arguments, including those mentioned in the remand application and also that the "means or weapon" by which Kumar assaulted Maliwal had to be recovered.
The vehement counter-arguments by Kumar's counsels continued for more than one-and-a-half hours. One of his counsels, Rajiv Mohan, claimed that Maliwal had lodged the FIR "belatedly after deliberation and concoction."
The Delhi Police arrested Kumar earlier on Saturday and his anticipatory bail plea was subsequently observed as becoming "infructuous" by a Delhi court.
