Xiaomi‘s exploit in India last year is still very fresh in our memories. The company dethroned Samsung in the fourth quarter of the year to emerge as the market leader in India. The Chinese tech giant seems to have consolidated on its lead in the first quarter of 2018. A recent report by Counterpoint Research has shown that Xiaomi secured a 31.1% share of the smartphone market in India in terms of shipment.
This is a leap from the 25% market share which the company achieved in Q4 2017. The report attributed Xiaomi’s success to a rise in the offline market as well as consolidating on its online channel. The company was able to record a 57% share in the online segment. Out of the Mi products, the Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro were the most popular models. That isn’t a surprise due to the fact that both models.
Xiaomi is followed by Samsung in India with its market share growing from 23% in Q4 2017 to 26.2% in Q1 2018 but that still wasn’t enough to match Xiaomi’s performance. Samsung released two of its flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S9 and S9+, in Q1 2018, but its growth was largely driven by launches in the budget segment which includes the Galaxy J7 NXT and J2 (2017).
Related: Xiaomi Set To Storm India With Its Fully-Owned Mi Home Stores This Year
The top 5 OEMs in the Indian market got a refreshing outlook, with Huawei replacing Lenovo in the top 5 smartphone vendors list. Huawei which recently commenced a major push for the market recorded a 3.4% share volume. The growth is attributed to the positive response which the Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7x received. Other brands on the top 5 list include Vivo and OPPO which occupied the third and fourth spots. This is despite a slump in the market share of both BBK subsidiaries in India. Vivo’s market share was 5.8%, down from 6% in Q4 2017 while Oppo’s market share also fell from 6% in Q4 2017 to 5.6% in the latest quarter.
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