Xiaomi overtakes Apple as world's No 2 smartphone maker: Canalys report
Xiaomi Corp. has become the world’s second biggest
smartphone maker over the past quarter following an 83 per cent jump in
shipments, according to preliminary estimates by Canalys.
This marks the first occasion that Xiaomi, the Chinese maker of
everything from rice cookers to gaming monitors, has broken into the top two,
historically dominated by Samsung Electronics
Co. and Apple Inc. Samsung had a 19 per
cent share in the second quarter, Xiaomi had 17 per
cent and Apple was at 14 per cent, according to the research firm’s data.
Shares of Xiaomi rallied
as much as 4.1 per cent on Friday, the best performer on Hong Kong’s benchmark
Hang Seng Index.
Huawei Technologies Co. had briefly disrupted the rankings, until
sanctions cut it off from essential chip supplies last year. Its withdrawal
from the highly competitive smartphone market pushed other Chinese vendors to
spend aggressively on new hardware and upgrades. Xiaomi was particularly
active, launching two flagship devices within the first four months of the
year. Its Mi 11 Ultra device features one of the largest camera sensors in a
smartphone to date, underscoring the firm’s ambition to push up into the
premium pricing range.
“Compared with Samsung and Apple,
its average selling price is around 40 per cent and 75 per cent cheaper
respectively,” said Canalys Research Manager Ben Stanton. “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.”
Overseas expansion was the biggest driver of Xiaomi’s growth, with
the company increasing shipments by more than 300 per cent in Latin America,
150 per cent across Africa and 50 per cent in Western Europe, Canalys said. The
Mi device maker has spent the first half of the year contesting the title of
biggest smartphone maker in China with rivals Oppo and Vivo, each with roughly
equal share of the market.
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