Despite a rough year, Xiaomi still China’s top seller in 2015

Xiaomi’s Mi Note (left) next to the iPhone 6.

Xiaomi became China’s top smartphone brand for the first time in 2014, but a rough 2015 looked set to make the startup’s reign a short one. Not so. New data from Canalys today says that Xiaomi retained its throne last year, narrowly beating compatriot arch-rival Huawei.

Average smartphone price in China rose to US$319, up from US$260 in 2014.

Apple came in third in China in 2015, said Canalys in data provided to the Wall Street Journal.

Xiaomi’s top spot will be a relief to the Beijing-based firm, which failed to hit its target of selling 80 million smartphones last year.

It ended up shifting 70 million phones, representing modest growth from its tally the year prior.

“Huawei is going to be very strong in 2016,” said Canalys analyst Nicole Peng to the newspaper. “There is a change of consumer buying pattern where people are buying more premium handsets. This is beneficial to Huawei and Vivo, but isn’t playing to Xiaomi’s strengths.”

That also sounds like good news for Apple. The Cupertino company just had its best quarter ever in China.

As China’s smartphone market saturates, the sector only saw 2 percent growth in 2015, the slowest since mobile phones took off. As peak smartphone approaches, many people are upgrading so long as they feel they can afford to do so. The average phone price in China rose to US$319 last year, up from US$260 in 2014.

The numbers from Canalys show that Xiaomi’s lead in terms of market share in China is tiny:

• 1st: Xiaomi – 15.2 percent
• 2nd: Huawei – 14.7 percent
• 3rd: Apple – 12.5 percent

Source: Wall Street Journal.