Apple may exceed 10% smartphone market share

Hello, this is Priyanka Salve, writing to you from Singapore.

Welcome to the latest edition of “Inside India“ — your one-stop destination for stories and developments from the world’s fastest-growing large economy.

While U.S. tech major Apple ranks among the major smartphone brands in many Asian countries, India is an outlier, with Chinese brands and Korea’s Samsung dominating the market. But last Friday, Apple’s latest iPhone launch resulted in long queues outside the company’s stores across major Indian cities.

This week I dig deeper to understand what’s driving Apple’s popularity.

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Boosted by the strong demand for the latest iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, U.S. smartphone maker Apple is set to increase its share in India, a hotly contested market largely dominated by Chinese smartphone companies and Korea’s Samsung.

Last Friday, India was in the grips of iPhone fever as customers formed long queues outside Apple stores in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Some reportedly waited for over 10 hours just to be the first to buy the latest iPhone, while others travelled for hours from smaller Indian cities to Apple stores in big cities to upgrade their iPhones.

“I change my iPhone every year,” Hitesh Patel, a customer queuing overnight outside the Apple store in Mumbai, told ANI. A common sentiment among customers was that features did not matter, but owning the latest iPhone did, affirming the appeal of the smartphone as a key status symbol.

The demand for the latest iPhone is stronger than the iPhone 17 launched last year, experts told CNBC, adding that this year the U.S. smartphone brand’s market share in India will touch double digits for the first time.

“Apple’s volume market share is likely to hit 10% in 2026, reaching double digits in a single calendar year for the first time, up from 4% in 2022,” Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.

He added that based on the initial channel checks, the iPhone 18 Pro series is seeing nearly 20% higher demand than the iPhone 17 series a year ago.  

Vivo has the biggest market share of about 18%, followed by the Korean company Samsung. However, as global chip costs rise, it is forcing affordable smartphone brands to raise prices in the country.  

Apple too has raised prices in India and launched more expensive…