Apple falls to third in China smartphone rankings, while Xiaomi vaults ahead

Canalys wasn’t prepared to give its prediction for Apple’s market share (you have to cross its palm with silver for that) but agreed it was “considerably less than five per cent”.

Overall, the Chinese market was stagnant quarter-on-quarter, the market researcher said.

Xiaomi regained its crown as the top smartphone firm in China during Q2 2015, according to reports from two analyst firms.

Surprisingly, the South Korean giant, Samsung takes the fourth spot followed by Vivo.

For once, Apple appears to getting some less-favorable headlines after falling to third place among China’s largest smartphone vendors.

“Apple and Samsung have both increased their sales activities in the China market, expanding rapidly in channel coverage through flagship stores and small- to medium-size phone retailers, respectively”, he said.

Differentiating the company from the top player Xiaomi, Huawei deputy chairman and now rotating chief executive officer said that the two companies were pitching to different segments of the Chinese market. Huawei’s 15.7 per cent share left a very slim lead for Xiaomi. Apple then continued its dominant position in the first quarter of 2015, but demand has decreased for Q2.

Xiaomi’s marketing strategy involved the use of social media.

Microsoft’s mobile market share plummeted in Q2 from 11.8 percent to 6.4 percent year-on-year, with just 27.8 million units shipped during the quarter, down from 50.3 million.

Huawei has been having a stellar time of late in the smartphone business. Huawei seems to be the biggest threat to most smartphone makers operating in the country, even Xiaomi, because it continues to see so much growth.

Seeking to expand beyond the cut-throat Chinese market, Xiaomi has undergone a period of rapid worldwide expansion, recently launching its phones in India and Brazil. This was despite the Cupertino, California based company reporting strong growth in its most recent earnings report. The company’s higher-end phones are taking off, and not only gobbling up market share, but generating more profit.