For years Samsung has been China's number one smartphone brand, but it was ultimately overcome by Xiaomi in 2014, which gained a 12.5 percent market share versus Samsung's 12.1 percent, IDC's report released Tuesday indicates. This represents a marked improvement over 2013's figures which had the Chinese homegrown brand taking a modest 5.3 percent of the market, while its South Korean rival boasted almost 18.7 percent market share in China.
Xiaomi's 186.5 percent year-on-year growth has taken everyone by surprise, especially Samsung which saw a 22.4 percent drop in the same period. Lenovo, which pledged to beat Samsung last year slid to third place in 2014, according to IDC.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. kicked off iPhone 6 sales in China in the fourth quarter of 2014, but has also been out played by the Chinese homegrown brand. Apple considers China's market with its potential customer base of about 700 million (twice the population of the United States) exceptionally attractive.
Explaining the success of Xiaomi, IDC's experts point to the company's strategy to sell low-cost Android smartphones with "decent features."
Founded in 2010, Xiaomi (meaning "little rice") has demonstrated tremendous growth over the past five years and became the world's most valuable technology start-up in December 2014, at the same time declaring that it would sell almost 100 million devices in 2015. The company is successfully doing business in seven Asian countries and planning further global expansion, according to its CEO and founder Lei Jun.
