In India, Xiaomi is getting close to toppling Samsung

Photo credit: Ian D. Keating.

Samsung, India’s long-standing king of smartphones, is facing its biggest ever threat in the nation of 1.3 billion. A new challenger – in the form of China’s Xiaomi – is growing strongly, and it’s now edging tantalisingly close to toppling Samsung’s statue.

Korea’s Samsung now has 24 percent of India’s smartphone shipments, versus a fast-rising 17 percent from Xiaomi, according to data this week from IDC.

While Xiaomi has recently been struggling in its native China as shoppers have switched to more premium-looking phones from the likes of Huawei and Oppo, India is a bright spot for the gadget-making startup.

Growth spurt

Xiaomi, which first launched in India mid-2014, is seeing rapid growth whilst Samsung has been largely stagnant for several years.

Xiaomi’s strong surge comes a few months after Chinese brands hit a new milestone in India, passing a collective 50 percent of the market for the first time.

A few more stats from IDC’s India report for the April to June quarter:

• Chinese brands stretched their lead further to 54 percent
• Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 4 is nation’s most popular model
• 28 million smartphones and 34 million dumb phones shipped

Xiaomi dishes its own India data:

• Xiaomi opened its first store in the country in May
• Plans to open 100 stores in the next two years
• Stores essential to growing sales in places where people are less familiar with online shopping, which Xiaomi initially relied on for sales
• Already, Xiaomi sees 20 percent of sales from offline retail
• Now has two Indian factories