Samsung has lost its dominance in China after Xiaomi took over the Korean tech giant by selling 15 million units during the second quarter this year.
Samsung, the leader in smartphone business, has suffered a major setback for the first time in the last three years. Dwindling sales of Samsung has resulted in the smartphone giant to losing its dominant position in some markets. China's renowned smartphone making company, Xiaomi, took over Samsung in sales to become the country's top-selling smartphone brand in the second quarter this year, market research firm Canalys reported Tuesday.
China is one of the most important markets for smartphone makers due to its large share in global shipments. During the second quarter ending June, 2014, mainland China accounted for 37 percent of the global shipments with around 108.5 million smartphones. Xiaomi grew extensively during the second quarter, from a struggling local company to a leading smartphone giant in the world's largest market. According to Canalys, Xiaomi's smartphones accounted for a 14 percent share in China, with 15 million sold units during the quarter.
"This is a phenomenal achievement for Xiaomi," Shanghai-based Canalys Research Analyst Jingwen Wang, said in a statement published on Monday. "Undoubtedly this was helped by an anticipated, temporarily under-strength Samsung performance during the quarter. But that is only half the story - Xiaomi has also executed on its strategy to grow volume shipments. It has delivered compelling products at aggressive price points, focused chiefly on its locally relevant MIUI software features and services, backed by effectively targeted marketing."
The impressive sales were sufficient to push the Korean tech giant, Samsung, to the second place, which is the first time in the last two years. The smartphone sales for Samsung dropped to 13.2 million units from 15.5 million during the same period last year. Local smartphone brands contributed massively toward the successive sales of smartphones in China. Out of the top 10 best-selling smartphone companies in China, eight were local vendors. Besides Samsung, only Apple managed to make it to the top 10 list.
Lenovo trailed Samsung by a margin of 2 million units and other local brands like Yulong, Huawei, BBK, ZTE, OPPO and K-Touch made it to the top 10 list. Local vendors together sold 70.7 million units during the second quarter and took a 65 percent market share, Canalys added.
Xiaomi's success in home market calls for an international debut as the phone maker plans to expand into other countries including Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia and Turkey, next year.
"Xiaomi needs to build its international brand, and will need to localize its services offering with MIUI for the different markets into which it expands ... and it must tailor its marketing and largely online sales channels accordingly," analyst Jessica Kwee wrote in a statement. "That said, Xiaomi does have the potential to be a disruptive force beyond China and international vendors should take note."
Strong sales in China helped Xiaomi rank among the top five smartphone vendors in the world for the first time in the second quarter, a separate research by Strategy Analytics reported last week.
