After being the top smartphone brand for 20 consecutive quarters, Xiaomi lost its leadership position in Q4 2022. According to a new report by Canalys, Xiaomi fell to third place in Q4, 2022. Samsung was the top smartphone brand followed by Vivo.
The Canalys report shows that India’s smartphone shipment saw a 6% decline in 2022 as compared to 2021.
“India was better positioned to weather the global downturn than other markets. But domestic consumer spending cooled in the last few months of 2022,” said Sanyam Chaurasia, an Analyst at Canalys.
Samsung managed to secure the top place in Q4 of 2022. It shipped 6.7 million units for a market share of 21%. Vivo shipped 6.4 million units and had a market share of 20% in the same quarter.
Xiaomi’s market share fell from 20% to 17% and the company only shipped 5.5 million units. If you see the sales for the full year 2022, Xiaomi was still the top smartphone vendor but its annual growth was -26%. The sales of 2022 were alarming for the company and the last quarter came with really surprising numbers. So, Xiaomi should now think seriously to get back its lost charm.
Samsung, Xiaomi, and realme saw negative growth in Q4, 2022 as compared to Q4, 2021. Realme was growing well since its inception but the Q4 2022 growth was -65%. Vivo and Oppo were the only 2 companies in the top 5 that had positive growth. It also is worth noting that the report included sales of Poco in Xiaomi and sales of OnePlus in Oppo.
Domestic consumer spending was not good in the last few months of 2022 resulting in lower smartphone shipments. Vendors that were focusing only on online channels also suffered poor performance. This is the reason Xiaomi and realme saw the biggest impact on sales. Samsung, Vivo, and Oppo still focus a lot on offline channels. So, these companies saw a good sales in tier-three and tier-four cities and helped the vendors to grow year on year.
