Three consecutive quarters of slowdown in the mass smartphone market, Xiaomi's stronghold, takes a toll on the Chinese price-warrior. As the market moves towards premium, can the company retain its throne?
If a person loses some mass from his arm, it might go unnoticed. A drop in volume of thigh muscle, too, perhaps remains invisible. The disappearance of chubby cheeks might still not turn heads either. But when the tummy gets sucked in, it catches instant attention. That’s the story of Xiaomi, India’s biggest smartphone player, which has seen back-to-back dip in its quarterly market share for the first time in over five years. From a high of 21 percent in the first quarter of 2022, the share has slumped to 16 percent in the corresponding quarter of this year, pushing the Chinese giant out of the top in the pecking order and relegating it to fourth position behind Vivo, Oppo and Samsung, according to the latest data released by Canalys.
Now, one might say that Xiaomi’s misfortune has to do with a slowdown in the Indian smartphone market, which has seen an unprecedented decline for three consecutive quarters—6 percent, 27 percent and 20 percent in the last two quarters of 2022 and the first quarter of this year, respectively. But if one compares the performance of other Chinese and South Korean rivals during the same period—Q1 of 2022 and Q1 of 2023—one gets a different picture. While Oppo bettered its numbers, Vivo improved its market share, Samsung climbed to the top position.