Xiaomi has dethroned Samsung Electronics from the coveted position of the top seller of smart phones in India for the first time in six years.
China’s mobile manufacturer giant sold more of its products in the final quarter of 2017 than its South Korean competitor.
Xiaomi’s aggressively priced suite of high-spec handsets and market expansion strategy enabled it to take the top spot in the world’s biggest smartphone market after China, said Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research, according to a Reuters’ report.
Xiaomi entered India just over three years back.
Its strategy in the country paid off as it has so far rested on flash sales on leading home grown e-commerce player Flipkart and US tech giant Amazon.com’s Indian site, an approach that helped it snatch market share without having to spend dearly on marketing, according to the report.
Xiaomi’s smartphone market share in India in the fourth quarter of last year stood at 25 per cent based on shipments, as against Samsung’s 23 per cent.
Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo came much behind with only six per cent market share each.
Another research firm Canalys said Xiaomi shipped 8.2 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, while Samsung shipped 7.3 million to India, the report quoted.