Chinese gadget and IoT manufacturer Xiaomi (HKEX: 1810) beat out Apple to retake third place in the global smartphone market, which the company ceded almost six years ago, as three research institutes, Canalys, Counterpoint, and IDC, all recorded roughly 45% year-on-year growth for the brand’s shipments in 2020 Q3.
Canalys attributed Xiaomi’s achievement to the brand’s strong performance in Europe, where it grew 88%, while its Chinese rival Huawei’s shipments fell 25%. IDC gave credit to its “strong gains in India and a continued strong presence in China, which accounted for 53% of the company’s volume in Q3 2020,” said the report.
Xiaomi’s founder and CEO Lei Jun posted the reports on his personal Weibo account early Friday. Earlier this year, he made a three-hour speech on the company’s tenth anniversary to reignite the company’s growth momentum amid fierce competition, both domestically and internationally.
With that said, researchers have split views on Xiaomi’s market share in India, a key market that contributed to one-third of its 2019 revenue. Counterpoint said Xiaomi lost its lead in India to Samsung in Q3, slipping to 23% from the previous quarter’s 26%, while Canalys said it kept the crown with a 5.7% advantage over the South Korean giant.
Read this: Samsung’s sprint to reclaim its lost crown from Xiaomi in India
This article is part of KrASIA’s “Key Stat” series, where KrASIA picks and presents the most significant figures of the day’s technology and business world.