Chinese brands take 50% of India's smartphone market

Chinese brands like Oppo, Lenovo, OnePlus, Gionee, Xiaomi took over 50%, compared to 19% a year ago

Chinese brands took their largest ever slice of the $10-billion Indian smartphone market in late 2016, accounting for more than one in every two phones sold - a growing market share that ate into sales from top-selling Samsung Electronics.

Samsung, the single most popular smartphone brand in India, commanded a roughly 30% market share just over a year ago. That slipped to 21% in November, according to tech research firm Counterpoint, the last month for which data is available.

Meanwhile - thanks to low cost, improved technology and an advertising blitz - Chinese brands like Oppo, Lenovo, OnePlus, Gionee and