The Chinese mobile giants have for a long time ravaged the top list in terms of market share, and given the well-established giants Samsung and Apple good reason to look in the rearview mirror. Now there has been a new, great development on this front.
Figures from the analysis agency Canalys shows that the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi has now overtaken Apple in the mobile market and taken second place in global market share – a rather impressive achievement.
Strong sales increase
According to Canalys, Xiaomi achieved a market share of 17 percent during the second quarter of this year, thanks to an increase in mobile sales of a solid 83 percent. Apple had a significantly more modest increase of one percent and ended with a market share of 14 percent.
This also means that Xiaomi is now starting to breathe Samsung into the neck. The South Korean giant secured a market share of 19 percent in the second quarter, after an increase in sales of 15 percent compared to the same period last year.
Xiaomi has traditionally had by far its strongest foothold in its home country China, but in recent years has begun to expand strongly in other regions – not least in Europe.
– Xiaomi is growing abroad at a high pace. For example, shipments grew by more than 300 percent in South America, 150 percent in Africa and 50 percent in Western Europe, Canalys research director Ben Stanton said in a press release.
Earns on Huawei decline
Admittedly, research firms often operate with slightly different figures in terms of sales and market shares, and the other two major players Gartner and IDC have not yet released their figures for the second quarter. In the first quarter gave IDC Xiaomi has a market share of 11.4 percent, and Apple 12.9 percent. At Gartner the figures were 12.9 and 15.5 per cent.
Both IDC and Gartner point out that Xiaomi, in addition to the other two Chinese mobile phone manufacturers Oppo and Vivo, has benefited greatly from the fact that Huawei has now been pushed off the top list. Huawei began to struggle heavily with sales after the US sanctions against the company came into force.
As digi.no reported Xiaomi was also blacklisted by the Trump administration due to suspicions of military affiliation, which Xiaomi itself denied. The company ended up going to court to challenge the decision.
