Xiaomi beats Samsung to top spot in India's smartphone market [techcrunch.com]
Xiaomi couldn't have wished for better timing of two reports that claim it has toppled Samsung to become India's top-selling smartphone company.
The Chinese firm, which is reportedly on a roadshow ahead of an IPO that could value it as high as $100 billion [bloomberg.com], is said to have beaten Samsung's sales efforts in India, the world's second-largest smartphone market [techcrunch.com] behind China, according to new data from Canalys [canalys.com] and Counterpoint [counterpointresearch.com].
Data from both analyst houses gave Xiaomi a narrow lead over Samsung in the final quarter of 2017, with 27 percent and 25 percent, respectively, according to Canalys — and 25 percent versus 23 percent, according to Counterpoint.
Counterpoint included year-long figures, which conclude that Samsung (24 percent) is ahead of Xiaomi (19 percent) over the longer timeframe. A glance at the previous year's figures shows that Xiaomi has closed what was once a significant gap with its rival.
Samsung Says Xiaomi Didn't Surpass Its Phone Sales In India [androidheadlines.com]
Samsung claims Xiaomi didn't take the title of the largest smartphone vendor in India, thus directly refuting the findings published by research firm Canalys on Wednesday. The Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer remains adamant that it's still the top handset company in the South Asian country "by a distance." Samsung backed its claims by citing an older report from GfK covering a three-month period ending November 30th which states the firm had a 40 percent volume share and 45 percent value share of the Indian smartphone market in terms of sales to consumers. The tech giant also explicitly proclaimed itself a leader in every handset segment in India, from entry-level devices to ultra-premium offerings like the Galaxy Note 8.