The US cooling on Chinese products has done little to stop the global growth of Xiaomi, who breezed past Apple to become the world’s number two distributor of smartphones.
The company’s growth is impressive, up 83 per cent year-over-year for the quarter, with 17 per cent of the global market now using its phones.
Samsung still lead the pack with 19 per cent, while Apple’s growth slowed, seeing it fall to 14 per cent.
“Xiaomi is growing its overseas business rapidly,” said Canalys Research Manager Ben Stanton. “For example, its shipments increased more than 300 per cent in Latin America, 150 per cent Africa and 50 per cent in Western Europe. And 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 per cent and 75 per cent cheaper respectively.
“So a major priority for Xiaomi this year is to grow sales of its high-end devices, such as the Mi 11 Ultra. But it will be a tough battle, with Oppo and Vivo sharing the same objective, and both willing to spend big on above-the-line marketing to build their brands in a way that Xiaomi is not.
“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.”
