Two of the largest smartphone markets in the world are India and China. While the latter are usually spearheaded by Chinese manufacturers, the former is a playground for everyone. But for the past five years, Xiaomi has dominated in terms of sales in India. Perhaps it was because the Chinese manufacturer stuck to its recipe for good-looking phones at an affordable price.
But things are not going well for Xiaomi in India at the moment. Anti-China sentiment in this market is at an all-time high. Also, Indians now have more disposable income than in previous years. As you can imagine, these two factors are causing Xiaomi to see disturbing results.
Xiaomi’s market share in India has plummeted
Current data from counterpoint research shed light on the current situation in India. According to them, 2022 was the year that Xiaomi saw the end of its five-year dominance in the Indian market. And while the Chinese manufacturer’s shares plummeted, Samsung grew.
The chart above shows how Samsung struggled to beat Xiaomi. The Chinese manufacturer was the leader in almost every quarter from Q2 2018 to Q1 2020. Finally, in the last quarter, Xiaomi saw a dip.
Samsung took a closer look at the Galaxy A series before the fourth quarter of 2022 and didn’t take it seriously. Regardless of Samsung’s mid-range and budget portfolio, Xiaomi took the lead.
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In addition, you can see that Samsung managed to move forward a bit in Q3 2020. Well, that’s where the Galaxy A series got a little good again. Still, Samsung hasn’t put as much effort into it as Xiaomi, causing it to quickly lose momentum.
However, Samsung has finally decided to get the Galaxy A series back on its feet now. With strong previous entries and upcoming phones, Samsung could finally take control of the Indian market. And for Xiaomi, this could be a wake-up call. Perhaps changing the recipe could get it moving again.