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Mi 10 Ultra, Redmi K30 Ultra, and the Redmi 9 family help Xiaomi replace Apple as the world's third-largest smartphone company

The Redmi K30 Ultra and Mi 10 Ultra have provided strong sales for Xiaomi in China. (Image source: Xiaomi - edited)
The Redmi K30 Ultra and Mi 10 Ultra have provided strong sales for Xiaomi in China. (Image source: Xiaomi - edited)
Three major market research firms have declared Xiaomi is now the world’s third-largest smartphone company in terms of units shipped for the third quarter of 2020. The good news for Xiaomi comes at the expense of Apple, which slips into fourth. Strong sales for the Redmi 9 series, Redmi K30 Ultra, and Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra have helped the Chinese OEM achieve impressive growth.

Canalys, IDC, and Counterpoint have all promoted Xiaomi into third position in their tables of the world’s largest smartphone companies in shipment market share and shipment volumes. It’s an incredible accomplishment for the still relatively young company (founded 2010), with the CEO Lei Jun taking to Chinese social media to enjoy some bragging rights. Perhaps ironically, it is Xiaomi’s frequent source of “inspiration”, Apple, which has had to make way for the Chinese upstart.

Xiaomi has enjoyed incredible growth over the year both at home and away. In China, Xiaomi was the only company in a chart produced by Canalys that managed growth during Q3 2020, while Huawei, Vivo, Oppo, Apple, and “Others” had to try to stem their respective losses. Big launches such as those of the Redmi K30 Ultra and premium Mi 10 Ultra smartphones have assisted Xiaomi with retaining a strong foothold in the domestic market: The Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra made over US$57 million in its first 10 minutes of sales while 100,000 Redmi K30 Ultra units were snapped up in just one minute.

Fortunately for Xiaomi, the firm has managed to replicate its domestic successes abroad, with the Redmi 9 series doing especially well in the key market of India. According to the Canalys statistics, Xiaomi has shipped 47.1 million units in Q3 2020, lagging behind Huawei on 51.7 million and Samsung on 80.2 million. However, more tellingly, the year-over-year change reported by IDC has the Chinese firm on +42.0%, which is amazing when placed in comparison with Apple (-10.6%), Huawei (-22.0%), and Samsung (+2.9%). Clearly Huawei is also feeling the effect of Xiaomi’s consistent and frequent smartphone launches.

Q3 2020 shipments. (Image source: Canalys via Seekdevice)
Q3 2020 shipments. (Image source: Canalys via Seekdevice)
Q3 2020 shipments. (Image source: IDC via Seekdevice)
Q3 2020 shipments. (Image source: IDC via Seekdevice)
Q3 2020 shipments. (Image source: Counterpoint via Seekdevice)
Q3 2020 shipments. (Image source: Counterpoint via Seekdevice)

Source(s)

Lei Jun (Weibo - in Chinese) & IDC & Canalys (1/2) & Seekdevice.com

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 10 > Mi 10 Ultra, Redmi K30 Ultra, and the Redmi 9 family help Xiaomi replace Apple as the world's third-largest smartphone company
Daniel R Deakin, 2020-10-30 (Update: 2020-10-30)