Back in November last year, Xiaomi was named the fastest growing smartphone brand in India, with a growth rate of nearly 300 percent year-on-year in Q3, 2017. The battle for the top spot became more intense when Xiaomi was positioned as the biggest competitor to the then leading smartphone vendor in India, Samsung. Yes, the Korean-giant has lost its position to Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, which has become India’s top smartphone vendor. Also Read - Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 could launch as a high-end phone with tons of exiting features
Also Read - Xiaomi confirms Mi 11 Lite colour variants in India: Here are the options availableXiaomi is now leading the smartphone shipments in the country with roughly 8.2 million units in Q4, 2017. In comparison, Samsung took the second spot with their total shipping totaling just over 7.3 million smartphones in the quarter. Here, it is worth noting that the dip in Samsung’s shipments was recorded despite the company registering annual growth of 17 percent. Also Read - Vivo V21e 5G launch on June 24; company accidentally reveals in a tweet
If combined, Xiaomi and Samsung now comprise more than 50 percent of the smartphone market in India. To put it precisely, Xiaomi has a total market share of 27 percent, while Samsung is at 25 percent. Vivo, Oppo, and Lenovo followed the chart to round-off the top five position with total smartphone shipments at about 30 million units.
Xiaomi s progress has been steady throughout last year with their main focus on its entry to the mid-level portfolio, in which the smartphone maker launched three of the top five selling smartphones. Xiaomi appears to have done better than most of the brands by keeping its game right in the budget to mid-range segment.
Xiaomi’s sales through its website continued its growth and helped boost the share of the overall online channel from 32 percent to 37 percent as compared to a year ago. While Xiaomi s growth shows how a successful online brand can enter the offline market; it continues to face a challenge in the mid-range segment, where Samsung, Oppo, and Vivo come into the picture with strong devices.
Meanwhile, Samsung India spokesperson said, “Samsung is India s number 1 smartphone company by a distance. As per GfK, which tracks sales to end consumers, in the last (November) quarter Samsung had a 45% value market share and 40% volume market share. Samsung is a full range player and leads the smartphone business across every segment of the India market in 2017. More importantly, Samsung is India s Most Trusted brand. We owe our undisputed leadership to the love and trust of millions of our consumers in India.”
India recently stumped the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market, after China, with over 40 million units shipped with 23 percent yearly growth in the Q3,2017.
