Xiaomi Corp. has surpassed Samsung as the top smartphone vendor in the world's largest market, China.
Xiaomi took over the No.1 spot just four years after it was established. For the second quarter of 2014, the Beijing-based company shipped a total of 15 million devices, accounting for 14 percent of the market share. South Korean company, Samsung, on the other hand, shipped 13.2 million devices, which accounted for 12 percent of the market share.
"Xiaomi does have the potential to be a disruptive force beyond China and international vendors should take note," Singapore-based analyst for Canalys, Jessica Kwee, told Businessweek.
Overall, the Chinese market bought at least 108.5 million smartphones for the second quarter or about 37 percent of the world's total smartphone purchases. Lenovo, the third largest vendor in China, accounted for 13 million shipments for smartphones.
In China, consumers prefer domestic vendors that will help them acquire the smartphones that they want. Apple, the only foreign vendor in China, gained a 58 percent increase in their shipments and Xiaomi worked harder to entice more consumers to do business with them. One of the company's strategies was to sell the devices at a cheaper rate and provide features and bonuses directly to consumers.
For the first half of 2014, Xiaomi experienced a 400 percent hike in their phone sales. It sold at least 26 million smartphones, four times more than the number they sold last year (7.03 million smartphones). The company aims to ship at least 100 million smartphones in 2015.
Xiaomi announced its plan to expand to other countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and Thailand, with the help of former Google executive Hugo Barra, Reuters reported. Barra left Google in August 2013 after 5.5 years to become Xiaomi's international vice president.
