Xiaomi beats anti-China sentiment to retain top spot in India, races ahead of Samsung and Vivo

Xiaomi succeeded in retaining the position of top smartphone vendor in India defeating rivals Vivo and Samsung.

Overriding a strong anti-China sentiment in India, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi succeeded in retaining the position of top smartphone vendor in the country defeating rivals Vivo and Samsung, a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) found.

The report said that Xiaomi retained its lead by shipping 13.5 million units in the third quarter, ending September, 2020 registering a 7% growth year-on-year.

Xiaomi beat Samsung, although the South Korean company registered a year-on-year growth of 38 percent in Q3 2020 with record shipments of 12.1 million units.

A total of 54.3 million smartphones were shipped to India in the quarter ended September 2020, a 16.5 percent overall increase from the 46.6 million devices shipped in Q3 2019.

Vivo ranked at third place with shipments of 9 million units, growing by 27 percent YoY in Q3 2020. Realme finished at fourth place growing 19 percent YoY to 8 million units. OPPO is at fifth place with 6.1 million shipments, growing 11 percent YoY.

On October 30, research firm Counterpoint had reported that Samsung had raced ahead of Xiaomi to become the leading smartphone brand by shipments in India.

India is one of the three largest smartphone markets in India.

"The reopening of the country with fewer restrictions was further fueled by pent-up demand in July and August and channel stocking in September to meet the upcoming Diwali quarter demand," the report said.