Xiaomi shares top spot with Samsung in India's smartphone market in Q3, 2017: IDC

Last month, a report from research firm Canalys suggested that its just a matter of time for Xiaomi to take the top spot in the Indian smartphone market, dethroning Samsung. And it has almost happened.

According to IDC, Xiaomi was the top smartphone maker in India in Q3 2017, however it is yet to dethrone Samsung as it has tied with the South Korean tech giant at 23.5 percent share each. Just yesterday, Xiaomi announced that it shipped a whooping 9.2 million smartphone in the country in Q3 2017. 

The IDC report suggests that Xiaomi almost tripled its smartphone shipments year-on-year (YOY) and doubled quarter-on-quarter (QOQ) in Q3 2017. The growth is mainly due to the brand's aggressive pricing stratergy, for instance the Redmi Note, which is still the best selling smartphone (4 million units shipped, which is almost half of Xiaomi's total devices shipped); and rapid expansion of offline platform through preferred partner program and Mi Home stores. 

As for Samsung, the South Korean tech giant registered 39 percent sequential growth QoQ and 23 percent year-on-year (YoY). The Galaxy J2, Galaxy J7 NXT and Galaxy J7 Max models contributed to almost 60 percent of the brand’s volume.

Lenovo (including Motorola) jumped up two spots, making a comeback to the third position after two quarters capturing nine percent of the market share. The company's shipments increased 83 percent from the previous quarter. The report mentions that a "couple of new launches under the Motorola brand reversed its internal brand share and now Motorola contributes to two-third of its portfolio."

The selfie focused device makers slipped to fourth and fifth spot respectively. vivo held 8.5 percent market share, while Oppo had a market share of 7.9 percent.

Speaking of the Indian smartphone market scenario during Q3 2017, a total of 39 million smartphones were shipped in the country, showing a 40 percent substantial growth quarter on quarter (QoQ) and a healthy 21 percent  growth year-on-year (YOY). Moreover, Indian smartphone shipment accounted for 10 percent of the global smartphone shipment during the quarter. The record sales figure can be attributed to the festive season sales, during which various smartphone brand launch new devices, and etailer provide enticing deals and easy finance option on popular existing smartphones.

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative