The day has come for world’s leading mobile vendor Samsung to step down and take a back seat. Chinese mobile vendor Xiaomi has beaten Samsung to become the top smartphone seller in India.
Xiaomi during the final quarter of 2017 shipped close to 8.2 million smartphones in India. However, even with an annual growth of 17 percent, Samsung was able to ship around 7.3 million smartphones. Thus for the first time in six years, Xiaomi has outsold Samsung to become top smartphone vendor in India.
According to the report published by Canalys, the smartphone market in India grew only by a modest 6 percent overall. The total smartphone shipments in India were just around 30 million. Thus, Xiaomi and Samsung control almost 50 percent of India’s smartphone market. Xiaomi leads the pack with 27 percent of Indian smartphone market share. Whereas, Samsung dips to second-place with 25 percent smartphone market share.
Other major Chinese mobile vendors Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo secured their position in the top five. However, Indian mobile vendors Micromax, Lava and others have lost their position further in Indian smartphone market.
“Xiaomi’s persistence has paid off. Its results are commendable, given it entered the market just three years ago. Multiple factors have contributed to Xiaomi’s growth, but the key reason for its current success lies in the autonomy that it granted its Indian unit, letting it run the business locally. Localization in channel strategy, marketing and products have been evident in Xiaomi’s Indian operations,” said Ishan Dutt, Canalys Research Analyst.
Xiaomi’s cut-throat pricing with high-spec, feature-rich devices has helped it to take on the world’s biggest smartphone market after China. Whereas, Samsung has been unable to win over cost-conscious Indian buyers with their sub-standard devices under the 15K price bracket.
However, Samsung has a far superior R&D, and a better hold on the supply chain. So, we could expect the South Korean company to revamp its low-cost portfolio and regain its lost position.