Xiomi surpasses global smartphone giants Samsung and Apple in market share

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi surpassed global smartphone giants Samsung and Apple in terms of market share to emerge as India's top 4G handset seller in January this year,  CyberMedia Research revealed.

The market research firm had said earlier this month that the iPhone maker had emerged as the largest 4G LTE device vendor in the country in October-December 2014.

The latest CyberMedia Research (CMR) data showed that Xiaomi led the 4G LTE device market with 30.8-per cent market share in January followed by Apple (23.8 per cent), Samsung (12.1 per cent), HTC (10 per cent) and Micromax (8.3 per cent).

The October-December 2014 quarter saw over 1 million 4G devices, including smartphones, tablets and data cards, being shipped to the Indian market.

The report said that Apple led with a 45-per cent market share at the end of October-December quarter in 2014, with HTC at 19 per cent in the next rung and Samsung at 16 per cent next in the order. Samsung led the pack with a 17.3 per cent market share followed by Lava (11.9 per cent), Microsoft (10.3 per cent), Micromax (9.7 per cent) and Intex (8.5 per cent), CMR said.

In overall handset sales in January 2015, including feature phones, smartphones, 3G and 4G mobile phones, Samsung led the pack.

Samsung with a 28.8 per cent market share in January was also the top smartphone vendor in India followed by Micromax (12.1 per cent), Intex (9.7 per cent), Lava (9.4 per cent) and Microsoft (4.5 per cent), it added.

According to CMR, overall, feature phones accounted for 66.05 per cent of the handsets shipped in January 2015, followed by smartphones at 33.95 per cent.