Two of the largest smartphone markets in the world are India and China. While Chinese manufacturers usually lead the latter, the first one is a playground for all. But in the past five years, Xiaomi has been dominating in terms of sales in India. Maybe it was because the Chinese manufacturer stuck with its recipe of good-looking phones at an affordable price point.
But currently, things are not working well in India for Xiaomi. The anti-China sentiment in that market is at an all-time high. Also, Indians now have more disposable income than in previous years. As you can guess, those two factors are making Xiaomi see upsetting results.
Xiaomi’s Market Share in India Has Plummeted
Recent data from Counterpoint Research shed light on the current situation in India. According to that, 2022 was the year when Xiaomi saw the end of its five-year streak of dominating the Indian market. And while the Chinese manufacturer saw plummeting shares, Samsung grew.
The chart above shows how Samsung was struggling to beat Xiaomi. Almost in every quarter from Q2 2018 through Q1 2020, the Chinese manufacturer was in the lead. In the latter quarter, Xiaomi finally saw a dip.
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Taking a further dive into the matter, before Q4 of 2022, Samsung did not take the Galaxy A series seriously. Without any attention to the mid-range and budget portfolio from Samsung, Xiaomi took the lead.
Furthermore, you can see that Samsung managed to pull a little ahead in Q3 2020. Well, that is when the Galaxy A series got a little good again. Still, Samsung did not put in as much effort as Xiaomi did, making it lose momentum quickly.
However, Samsung has finally decided to make the Galaxy A series bounce back now. With strong previous entries and upcoming phones, Samsung might finally take control of the Indian market. And for Xiaomi, this might be a wake-up call. Maybe a change in the recipe could make it gain back momentum.
