Xiaomi is fastest-growing phone brand in Q3. Here are the top 7

Word has it that Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments dropped from 70 million in 2015 to 41 million in 2016. So you wouldn’t think that it could rise again so soon, so fast. But that’s exactly what it did.

In a spectacular case of defying the odds, Xiaomi is once again part of the Big Boys’ Club. Market-research firm Counterpoint has revealed that in the third quarter of 2017, the Chinese company grew 84 percent year-over-year, making it the world’s fastest-growing smartphone brand. Its global market share was tied with Vivo at 7 percent.

In this comprehensive piece on Xiaomi, U.S. publication Wired looked behind the fall and rise of the consumer-electronics company — how it got into trouble with its reliance on online sales, how it changed its business model, and how it partnered with around 100 startups for other internet-connected home and tech products.

Impressive, really. Hence, its inclusion in the top smartphone brands shipment-wise from July to September this year. Here’s the list:

Samsung: 21 percent market share
Apple: 12 percent
Huawei (includes Honor): 10 percent
OPPO: 8 percent
Vivo and Xiaomi: 7 percent
Lenovo (includes Motorola): 4 percent

Notice that on the list, only Samsung and Apple are not Chinese brands. If this were years ago, you would have seen South Korea’s LG and Japan’s Sony there.

Samsung was still the undisputed leader in the third quarter with a market share that’s almost double Apple’s. However, when it came to profit, Apple ruled them all with a maximum per-unit profit of $151 (around P7,530).

According to Counterpoint, “Apple’s per-unit profit is five times higher than Samsung — that has one of the highest number of models across price bands — and approximately 14 times higher than the average per-unit profit of Chinese brands.”

Curious? Here’s a look at the per-unit profit of some of the top brands:

Apple: $151 per smartphone
Samsung: $31 (P1,546)
Huawei: $15 (P748)
OPPO: $14 (P698)
Vivo: $13 (P648)
Xiaomi: $2 (P100)

Where do you think Xiaomi will be by end-December 2018? Sound off in the comments.

Learn About This Author

Alora Uy Guerrero

Editor-in-chief: Alora Uy Guerrero has 22 years of experience as an editor for print and digital publications such as Yahoo. She took time off journalism to manage OPPO’s digital-marketing campaigns. When not busy with her babies, she’s working on Revü, a passion project — or probably traveling or obsessing over her favorite bands, movies, TV shows, and basketball teams.