Google's Pixel 2 may shake up Apple, Samsung in India premium segment
Google’s new devices will be the last entrant in India—launching November 15—in the premium segment this season, behind Samsung and Apple that have brought in their flagships to India, in that order. Some experts say given the pricing—starting at Rs 61,000—the sales volumes of the new models could well be twice that of the inaugural Pixel models, in India and globally.
The US-based search giant launched a slew of hardware products on Wednesday, including the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL priced between Rs 61,000 and Rs 82,000. In comparison, Samsung’s Note 8 started from Rs 67,900. iPhone X’s two variants are priced at Rs 89,000 and Rs 1.02 lakh apiece, making them most expensive of the lot.
“The pricing is good and aggressive for the types of specs on offer,” said Prabhu Ram, head-industry intelligence group at Cybermedia Research, “With the focus on aesthetics and machine learning capabilities, voice assistants, fun factors like augmented reality (AR) stickers, it signifies an improvement over the original or initial Pixel models,” he added.
Jaipal Singh, senior analyst at International Data Corporation (IDC) India, said the current “aggressive” pricing underlines Google’s ambition to get a higher share of the premium segment—devices priced above Rs 30,000—with Pixel devices.
The premium segment is dominated by Samsung with 55% and Apple at 30%, with OnePlus a distant third, as per Counterpoint Research for the April-June period.
The firm’s senior analyst Tarun Pathak said although Pixel gained only less than 2% market share in the premium segment globally, it managed to grab mindshare of users looking for more choice within the Android OS, on the higher end.
“This is likely to give boost to Pixel 2, which has been priced very closely to Samsung flagships. We estimate Pixel sales to be doubled as compared to last year, both in India and globally,” he added.
According to industry data, Google shipped 37,143 Pixel smartphones till end-2016 and around 20,000 till July this year. Google didn’t comment on the numbers.
IDC’s Singh cautioned that despite the attractive prices, the brand will face a “very stiff challenge in getting desired volumes in India” for taking share away from the incumbents, considering the later timing of Google’s launch and bundled plans being offered by Apple and Samsung, which also enjoy a brand pull in India.
Samsung’s flagship Galaxy Note 8 series, which was the first to begin sales, from September 21, not only has the advantage of selling through the pre-Diwali period, it is offering buyers 448 GB of extra 4G data over eight months through Reliance Jio tie-up.
While the iPhone 8 series has begun sales to a lukewarm response, the buzz around iPhone X has increased, which goes on sale from November 3. It also has a tie-up with Jio, giving bundled data and assured buybacks, which brings down the effective price of the phone.
CMR’s Prabhu was still optimistic about Pixel’s future. “With good marketing, Pixel should be able to get those millennials who cannot afford an iPhone X… it will definitely make a dent in the premium smartphone segment.”
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