Canalys, a leading global technology market analyst firm has revealed that the Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi is now the world’s second-largest phone maker after Samsung which was the leading vendor with a 19% share of smartphones shipped according to its latest mobile analysis. Xiaomi became the world’s second-largest phone brand in the second quarter of 2021 beating American multinational, Apple which came third, with 14%, while Vivo and Oppo maintained strong growth momentum to complete the top five. Canalys Research Manager, Ben Stanton said Xiaomi is growing its overseas business rapidly as its shipments increased more than 300% in Latin America, 150% in Africa, and 50% in Western Europe.
“As it grows, it evolves. It is now transforming its business model from challenger to incumbent, with initiatives such as channel partner consolidation and more careful management of older stock in the open market. It is still largely skewed toward the mass market, however, and compared with Samsung and Apple, its average selling price is around 40% and 75% cheaper respectively,” said Ben Stanton.
Stanton said the major priority for Xiaomi this year would be to grow sales of its high-end devices, such as the Mi 11 Ultra though it will be a tough battle, with Oppo and Vivo sharing the same objective, have their own world dominance, and both willing to spend big on above-the-line marketing to build their brands in a way that Xiaomi is not.
Xiaomi’s average selling prices were noted to be way below those of Samsung (40 percent) and Apple (75 percent), and even flagships like the Mi 11 are relatively affordable, and unlike Huawei, has a market presence in the US as it is not blacklisted.
“All vendors are fighting hard to secure component supply amid global shortages, but Xiaomi already has its sights set on the next prize: displacing Samsung to become the world’s largest vendor,” Stanton noted.
Now that Xiaomi has broken and is shaking the dominance of the well-known giants, the only question remains, whether it can become the frontrunner of the mobile industry and hold on to that position considering there was not much of a gap between its score and Samsung.
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