Samsung steals Xiaomi’s crown in India’s smartphone market

Samsung Electronics took a 20 percent market share in India in the last quarter of 2022 to take the top spot in the world’s second-biggest market for devices over erstwhile leader Xiaomi Corp., who had an 18 percent market share.

Xiaomi Corp, wicho is overhauling its India strategy after misjudging consumer tastes in mobile phones, focused on selling mobile phones under US$120, while Indian consumers were willing to pay up for better looking models with richer features.

South Korea’s Samsung launched products to meet those aspirations and offered innovative financing schemes that made them affordable to most.

Tarun Pathak, a research director at Counterpoint, noted that while the Indian market is witnessing a so-called ‘premiumisation’ trend, Xiaomi was underprepared for the shift with a budget phone-heavy portfolio.

In India, the market share of sub-$120 phones decreased from 41% in 2017 to 26% in 2022, according to Counterpoint. Additionally, in the same time frame, the share of premium phones—those costing more than $360—doubled to 11 percent.

India is a significant growing market for both Xiaomi and Samsung, with smartphones being the most popular electronic item there. While Samsung reported revenues of $10.3 billion, of which $6.7 billion came from smartphones, the Chinese manufacturer brought in a total of $4.8 billion in India between 2021 and 2022.

Yet Xiaomi, which has admitted in the past that it released "too many" models, is restructuring its product lineup to concentrate on high-end smartphones.

The Redmi Note 12 was released in January, and the top-end model costs more than 30,000 rupees.