Xiaomi outperforms Samsung shifting 13m smartphones in China
Samsung no longer dominates China’s flourishing smartphone market after Beijing firm Xiaomi saw a period of growth in the second quarter this year during which it shifted 15 million units.
Xiaomi's mobiles come in a range of colours
Xiaomi, a company founded three years ago, beat Samsung which sold 13.2 million and Lenovo who came in a close third shifting 13 million units between April and June this year, according to Canalys.
The Beijing firm now has the fifth largest smartphone market share in the world although its sales are largely dependent upon its home nation. Over a third of all smartphones are sold in China and Xiaomi only managed to internationally ship 100,000 units.
Xiaomi has expressed intent to expand its operations into Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia, this year.
The Chinese group outperformed a lagging Samsung which announced a 20 per cent dip in profits in the last quarter.
Jingwen Wang, research analyst at Canalys, on Xiaomi's performance, said: “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, backed by effectively targeted marketing."
Wang added: "But it does now need to deliver LTE products in China to address growing demand for 4G services if it is to retain its momentum."
Sameer Singh, tech analyst for tech-thoughts.net, told Reuters: "[Xiaomi] do have a problem right now, but it seems to be a supply problem more than anything else,"
"Right now, international demand far outweighs supply. That could potentially make interested customers defect to other offerings."
However, critics have recently hit out at Xiaomi for its relaxed attitude towards copyright law - it recently tried to pass off images from Flickr and National Geographic as ones taken with its smartphones' camera.
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of ad group WPP, last year predicted that Xiaomi would give major smartphone manufacturers a run for their money.