Xiaomi to be third largest phone maker globally in 2021

Buoyed by its stellar performance in India and Russia markets, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is projected to become the third largest global brand after Samsung and Apple in 2021, according to a new report.

The year 2021 is going to be the year of Chinese smartphone vendors and the third and fourth spots are likely to go to Vivo and OPPO, respectively.

"In Asia Pacific, Vivo, Xiaomi and OPPO will become top 3 players driven by aggressive marketing, expanding channel footprints and competitive pricing," said Linda Sui, Senior Director at market research firm Strategy Analytics.

This year, Xiaomi is projected to grow its share of global smartphone market by 2 percentage points to a record 13 per cent.

According to the IDC, Xiaomi with 147.8 million shipments had 11.4 per cent share at fourth position globally, with Huawei at third spot with 14.6 per cent share.

Huawei continues to suffer under the weight of US sanctions and saw a dramatic year-over-year decline of 42.4 per cent.

According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung with 20 per cent and Apple with 16 per cent are expected to be the world's No 1 and No 2 smartphone vendor, respectively.

Xiaomi finished the fourth quarter of 2020 in the third position with shipments of 43.3 million and 11.2 per cent market share globally, according to the IDC.

In India, Xiaomi led the smartphone market in full year 2020 with 27 per cent share, followed by Samsung at 20 per cent share.

"For 2021, we believe Xiaomi will emerge as the third largest global smartphone vendor surpassing Huawei. Xiaomi has been performing well in the India and Russia markets, and has also been very aggressive in Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe," said Abhilash Kumar, smartphone analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Globally, the global smartphone shipments will rebound by more than 6.5 per cent (on-year) to reach 1.38 billion units in 2021.

"The growth is driven mostly by the improved economic situation as the COVID-19 pandemic weakens, a growing stock of ageing smartphones and the operator/vendor push for migration to 5G," the report mentioned.

Strategy Analytics said that in Africa and Middle East, Chinese conglomerate Transsion will pass Samsung as the largest vendor and Xiaomi will surge into third place ahead of Apple.

"In the Western European markets, Xiaomi will solidify its grip on third place after Apple and Samsung," the report noted.