Xiaomi topples Samsung in 50 major cities of India

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has toppled Samsung to become the top selling brand in top 50 cities of India. Xiaomi moved to the leadership position registering 120 percent growth in the Q3 2017 with Redmi Note 4 as the highest selling model, according to International Data Corporation's (IDC) latest India Monthly City-Level Smartphone Tracker.

While South-Korean giant Samsung slipped to the second slot with 15 percent quarterly growth in Q3, the other three brands in the top five include Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo. Interestingly, four of the top five are the Chinese brands.

The other notable takeaway from the report was that metro cities continue to be the major contributors to the smartphone sales in India, with Delhi and Mumbai contributing one-fourth of the total sales in top 50 cities. These fifty cities also accounted for 50 percent of smartphone sales in the quarter.

“Mega-online sale(s) by prominent e-tailers acted as catalyst for the robust growth across city tiers with e-tailers now contributing around 40 percent of the market in top 50 cities of India,” said Himanshu Jain, Market Analyst, IDC India. “However, the offline channel saw only average traction during the festive season,” added Jain.

Amongst the Tier II cities, Bhopal, Gurgaon, and Jaipur emerged as the fastest growing cities with each growing more than 40 percent from the previous quarter.