Xiaomi is on the verge of becoming India's largest smartphone brand. The Chinese company, who started operations in 2014 now has a market share of 22.3% in the country, which is just a 0.5% less than Samsung's 22.8% market share. Xiaomi has registered a growth of 292% Year-on-Year (YoY), and the entire credit goes to the company's uber-cheap yet premium smartphones.
According to Counterpoint Research firm, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 is the best-selling smartphone in the third successive quarter. Counterpoint revealed these reports in its preliminary estimates for Q3 2017 ended September 30, 2017.
“The rise of Xiaomi brand in India can be attributed to the fact that the mid-price segment (about Rs 10,000) in India started to peak in late 2016. Xiaomi, with its Redmi Note 4, was right there and became the model of the market within no time,” Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Mobile Devices and Ecosystems, Counterpoint Research told IANS.
“It will be difficult for Xiaomi to root out Samsung in the Indian market but yes, it won’t be a surprise to see Xiaomi becoming number one model in one of the upcoming quarters,” Pathak added.
Furthermore, Xiaomi's offline expansion in the country is a step in right direction. “Xiaomi’s offline expansion into India with right device portfolio helped the smartphone maker cement its position right after the market leader Samsung,” Pathak added.
Behind Xiaomi are Chinese players Vivo and Oppo who registered a growth of 121% and 117% YoY during Q3 2017. Overall, in Q3 2017, a whopping 40 million smartphones were shipped, thereby registering a growth of 13% YoY and 32% QoQ. That said, festive season helped the smartphone sales in the country.
Meanwhile, domestic brand Micromax posted its best quarter results in a long time. Micromax is currently the third largest feature phone brand in India. Nokia secured fourth place in the feature phone market, thanks to the Nokia 3310 and other Nokia feature phones.
Same as the smartphone segment, Samsung is still the leader in feature phone market with a market share of 23%, which is followed by itel with 13% share, Micromax at 8%, and Nokia (HMD Global) at 8% market share. Nokia's aggressive feature phone business is a threat to Samsung as the comeback brand could dethrone the South Korean brand in coming quarters.
