Meet the new star: Xiaomi is now third biggest smartphone vendor in the world

Despite facing criticisms for its security practices, Xiaomi has emerged as the new star in the smartphone world. The Chinese company is now the third largest smartphone vendor, just behind Samsung and Apple, according to a latest report by the market research firm IDC.

Xiaomi, for the first time, jumped into the Top 5 list, thanks to its focus on China and adjacent markets, which resulted in triple-digit year-over-year growth.

Xiaomi has been the top seller in China and recently entered India, where it sells phones exclusively through Flipkart.

“Key to its success was the launch of its Mi4 smartphone in August, which was positioned as a high-end alternative to the status quo. What remains to be seen is how quickly the company can move beyond its home territories to drive volumes higher,” IDC added.

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Samsung remained the clear leader in the worldwide smartphone market, but was the only company among the top five to see its shipment volume decline year over year. While Apple took the wraps off its highly anticipated iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and in the process posted its largest third-quarter volume ever.

According to the research firm, smartphone shipments during the third quarter of 2014 totalled 327.6 million units, resulting in 25.2 percent growth when compared to the 261.7 million units shipped in 3Q13 and 8.7 percent sequential growth above the 301.3 million units shipped in 2Q14.

“Despite rumours of a slowing market, smartphone shipments continue to see record-setting volumes,” said Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. “We’ve finally reached a point where most developed markets are experiencing single-digit growth while emerging markets are still growing at more than 30 percent collectively.
This is great news for overall volumes, but the challenge has now become how to make money on devices that are quickly becoming commodity products. Outside of Apple, many are struggling to do this.”

“A driving force behind the record smartphone volume was the combined effort of the vendors trailing market leaders Samsung and Apple,” IDC added.

“The next three vendors - Xiaomi, Lenovo, and LG Electronics - all posted market-beating growth and with markedly different strategies,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team.

“This shows that there is still room to compete in this market, whether it be in the low end as Lenovo has done, at the high end where Xiaomi competes, or in both as LG Electronics has shown. Beyond the top five, there are a number of other vendors achieving similar results.”