This is based on data from two analysts firms, with Canalys stating that Xiaomi actually accounted for 15.9% of smartphone shipments in the country.
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Xiaomi rounded out the top five, capturing a 4.6 per cent market share, up from 3.5 per cent year-on-year, and shipping 19.8 million units, up from 15.1 million.
Apple’s iPhone sales surged 85 percent in the greater China area – which Canalys defines as including Hong Kong and Taiwan – with revenue from the region more than doubling to US$13 billion for the latest quarter ended on June 27, according to the company.
Previously companies such as Apple and Samsung have enjoyed their positions at the top of the list, but it looks like today Xiaomi will be stealing their spot. The report attributeed Xiaomi’s performance, after a two quarter dip, to the startup clearing out some older inventory left in the market and the release of new LTE models.
Jingwen Wang, who works as an analyst at Canalys, commented: “The China smartphone market continues to mature, remaining stagnant quarter-on-quarter”.
While Xiaomi has hit Apple’s efforts in China, it’s likely done bigger damage to Samsung’s, thanks to the popularity of the homegrown brand’s ultra-cheap devices and its recently launched Michigan Note Pro phablet, which dramatically undercut Samsung’s pricing for the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 4. Competition among major brands has never been so intense. “The weak growth was a result of muted economic environment, smartphone market saturation and lack of product related catalysts”, Counterpoint research said.
Apple still had a 12.2 per cent market share, but this declined during the quarter. We already knew Apple had a blockbuster Q2 in China as its financials showed, and the fact that it can still compete at this point in the year bodes well for its upcoming devices.
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On the contrary, Apple made hefty gains in iPhone shipments on the back of China strength last quarter.
