Xiaomi overtakes Samsung in India
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Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi beat out Samsung as the No.1 smartphone vendor in India by shipments in Q4 2017, according to estimates from Canalys. During the quarter, Xiaomi shipped 8.2 million smartphone units in India, well above that of Samsung, which shipped 7.3 million smartphone units.
Xiaomi has been slowly increasing its shipment share and riding Samsung’s tail in India since its entry in 2015. And by Q3 2017, Xiaomi boosted its market share in India’s smartphone market to 23.5%, placing it on par with Samsung in the smartphone segment. Collectively, Xiaomi and Samsung account for 52% of India’s smartphone market. Overall smartphone shipments in India grew 6% to reach just under 30 million units in Q4 2017.
Xiaomi’s been doubling down on its efforts in India to capture the enormous and growing smartphone market the country represents.
- India is the company’s biggest market outside of China. Xiaomi tied with Samsung as India’s top smartphone vendor in terms of shipments in Q3, according to IDC. Xiaomi nearly tripled shipments year-over-year (YoY) in India and accounted for a quarter of India’s total smartphone shipments.
- India recently became the world’s second-largest smartphone market in terms of shipments after China. This growth is expected to continue as data and devices become more affordable in the region. Smartphone shipments in India, which reached over 39 million units in Q3, accounted for 10% of the global shipments for the first time ever in a quarter.
The news demonstrates how Xiaomi’s increased efforts to win over consumers in India has paid off. In November, Xiaomi rolled out its Mi Exchange program in India, which enables consumers to exchange old phones at the Mi Home Store for a discount on a new device, boosting ownership of premium smartphones. The company also slashed the price of its Redmi Note 4 smartphone, India's best-selling smartphone in Q3 2017.
Additionally, the company pledged to invest over $1 billion in 100 Indian startups over the next five years to build out an ecosystem of mobile apps that can be used on its smartphones. These apps are intended to increase mobile time spent and act as a retention tool to keep fickle smartphone users in India on Xiaomi devices.
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