As Xiaomi gears up for the launch of its flagship smartphone lineup and other products including the Mi Pad 5 series on August 10, the Chinese smartphone maker has got one more reason to rejoice.
The company had recently outnumbered Apple as the second-biggest smartphone maker globally and has now raced on to reach the milestone of becoming the global leader by dethroning Samsung.
According to Counterpoint research’s data, Xiaomi has been able to capture 17.1 per cent of the global smartphone market, overtaking Samsung, which had a 15.7 per cent market share.
Though these numbers are for July 2021, Xiaomi’s meteoric rise means that Apple is now pushed to the third position with a market share of just 14.3%, which is marginally higher than what it was back in 2015. Interestingly, Xiaomi had just a 5.2% share while Samsung had close to 22% market share six years back.
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While Samsung is already busy contemplating the reason behind depleting sales ahead of this years’ Galaxy Unpacked event, Xiaomi’s sales grew 26% MoM in June 2021. Xiaomi, which primarily focuses on budget and mid-range Android phones under its Mi, Redmi and Poco brands, is just a decade old company and is said to have topped the 800 million smartphone shipments mark.
The Chinese smartphone maker has benefitted from the market recovery post-Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and has got the cash counters ringing ever since these countries have come out of lockdowns. It has also registered decent traction in Europe, claims Counterpoint.
Another key factor that has helped in Xiaomi’s growth is the departure of Huawei, thanks to the trade sanctions placed by the US. Xiaomi quickly filled the market void created by Huawei’s absence back home in China and global markets.
In a prepared statement, Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint said, “The OEM has been expanding in Huawei’s and Honor’s legacy markets like China, Europe, Middle East and Africa. In June, Xiaomi was further helped by China, Europe and India’s recovery and Samsung’s decline due to supply constraints.”
Samsung on the other hand doesn’t have a major market share in China nor was it able to capitalize on the absence of Huawei. Additionally, the company is facing production issues in Vietnam which has impacted its shipments adversely.
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