OnePlus shows Apple how to become the India's top smartphone seller

India is arguably the world’s toughest smartphone market — just ask Apple. Yet Chinese manufacturer OnePlus has found a path to success in the country of 1.3 billion.

As Pete Lau, OnePlus’s co-founder and chief executive officer, describes it, OnePlus targeted younger users with stylish and affordable Android-based phones. Rather than plastering shops with ads, student ambassadors promote the Shenzhen-based company’s products. OnePlus also sponsors cricket games, breaking a no-advertising pledge it has in other places.

Thanks to those efforts, OnePlus commanded 40 per cent of India’s premium smartphone market in June, compared with zero when it arrived in 2014, according to Counterpoint Research, which defines the segment as one where devices cost Rs 30,000 ($435) or more. OnePlus is ahead of Samsung Electronics Co., which has a 34 per cent share, and Apple Inc.’s 14 per cent. Long term, Lau is betting that he’ll be able to outrun rivals at the top end of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market.