Xiaomi essentially closed the gap with Samsung in India, according to new data compiled by Strategy Analytics, with the market research firm finding that the Chinese original equipment manufacturer seized 25 percent of the smartphone market in the South Asian country over the third quarter of the year, thus having a share that’s only one percentage point lower to that of the South Korean tech giant. The two companies hence accounted for more than half of the handset market in India, marking a rarely seen level of dominance in such a highly competitive environment. Samsung’s share increased 26 percent year-on-year and is likely to continue growing in a stable manner going forward but that wasn’t enough for the firm to strengthen its leading position in the country as Xiaomi’s annual growth rate in India amounted to 300 percent based on its performance in the three-month period ending September 30th.
While Xiaomi’s performance in the country has been on a steady rise in recent times and the company showed signs of being able to take on Samsung directly during the second quarter of the year, the latest findings still come as a surprise to some industry watchers as not man predicted the Chinese OEM will be able to catch up to its Seoul-based competitor so quickly. Xiaomi’s aggressive business strategy entailing hardware subsidies is likely to continue going forward, having yielded such positive results so far.
Vivo was the third largest phone vendor in India in Q3 2017, Strategy Analytics reported, putting its market share at 10 percent, one percentage point above that of its sister company OPPO. The two BBK Electronics-owned OEMs were followed by Lenovo who seized seven percent of the market during the same period, according to the same data. In the last half a decade, Chinese companies managed to increase their smartphone market share in India by 5,700 percent and currently hold 57 percent of it, the market analytics firm claims. The Indian market as a whole continues to grow, having reached 36 million unit sales this year, a 7 percent yearly increase. The Redmi Note 4, Redmi 3, and Redmi 4A from Xiaomi were the best-selling smart handsets in the country over Q3 2017, being followed by Samsung’s Galaxy J2, Strategy Analytics indicated. The second largest smartphone market in the world is expected to become even more competitive in the coming years, with the product penetration in the country still not accounting for even a third of its population, according to most industry trackers.