Xiaomi is now the world’s third-biggest smartphone vendor, according to IDC (UPDATE: back to 4th)

Update on October 10 @1100: Xiaomi’s spot on the podium only lasted for only about eight hours. Last night, Lenovo announced it completed its acquisition of Motorola, making Lenovo the number three smartphone manufacturer in the world (hat-tip to Bloomberg). Prior to the acquisition, the race for third, according to IDC, was separated by mere tenths of a percentage point of global market share. This puts Xiaomi in fourth and LG in fifth.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi might have the word “little” in its name, but the company is anything but tiny. According to IDC, it shipped 17.3 million devices in the three month period ending in October 2014, up 211 percent from the year prior. The company now sits behind Apple and Samsung, respectively, as the third biggest smartphone vendor when measured for device shipments.

IDC attributes Xiaomi’s strong quarterly performance to the release of the Mi4, the company’s latest flagship, which went on sale in August. Given that that device remains available only in mainland China, the company’s surge underscores how Chinese consumers’ buying power can influence a company’s bottom line.

See: Xiaomi Mi4 is a bombshell in the $300 smartphone war

Xiaomi’s success probably won’t affect Apple sales, but all evidence points to the company squeezing out Korea’s golden boy. IDC reveals that while Samsung’s global shipments remain far stronger than Xiaomi’s in absolute numbers – 78 million versus 17 million in Q3 – they’ve dropped 8 percent year-on-year. That’s almost certainly due to the growing ubiquity of affordable brands coming out of China and India, for which Xiaomi is, for better or for worse, now the global poster child.

(Source: IDC)