Xiaomi matches Samsung’s market share in India, ships record 9.2 million phones in Q3 2017

It’s been on the cards for a while and now it’s finally happened. Samsung’s monopoly of the smartphone market in India has officially ended, with China’s Xiaomi drawing level on market share.

That’s according to new statistics from IDC, which peg both Xiaomi and Samsung at 23.5 percent for the third quarter of 2017. Together, the two Android OEMs make up an incredible 47 percent of the market share in the region, with Lenovo-Motorola (9 percent), Vivo (8.5 percent), and Oppo (7.9 percent) making up the rest of the top five.

Xiaomi’s meteoric rise in India appears to have peaked in Q3, with the Shenzhen-based manufacturer shipping a record 9.2 million smartphones. That mighty figure represents a 300 percent growth rate year-on-year. The managing director of Xiaomi India, Manu Kumar Jain, took the news as an opportunity to celebrate on Twitter and chart the company’s success in the region.

“We started with a humble beginning of selling 100,000 per quarter in 2014, crossed the 1 million mark in Q3 2015, 3 million in Q3 2016 and now for the first time – 9 million in Q3 2017,” he said. “This is all because of YOU!”

A major part of Xiaomi’s newfound dominance of the growing Indian market has been its impressive presence online. The IDC report claims that Xiaomi now holds 50 percent of the online share, up from 47 percent in Q3 2016.

Happy to share that @XiaomiIndia shipped 9.2 Mn smartphones in Q3 2017.

We started with a humble beginning of selling 100K/quarter in 2014, crossed the 1M mark in Q3 ’15, 3M in Q3 ’16 and now for the 1st time – 9M in Q3 ’17.

This is all because of YOU! #NoMiWithoutYou (1/3) http://pic.twitter.com/SxdUlFmIja

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) November 13, 2017

Despite pushing into the premium sector with trend-setting flagships like the Mi Mix devices, Xiaomi’s India wing thrives on its affordable mid-range phones that offer a high price-performance ratio. A recent Counterpoint report cited the Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4, and Redmi 4A as the top three best-selling smartphones in India, respectively.

It’ll be interesting to see what Samsung does next, but for the time being it seems as though its iron grip on the Indian smartphone market has well and truly loosened. At the current rate, it won’t be long until Xiaomi doesn’t have to share the top spot any longer.