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.
The second quarter is traditionally the quietest period for
Apple and Samsung as both prepare for new handset launches in the following
months. The iPhone maker has asked suppliers to build as many as 90 million
next-generation iPhones this year, a sharp increase from its 2020 iPhone
shipments, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.
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