Samsung is all set to dislodge Xiaomi in the smartphone market share sweepstakes, dislodging it from the top slot it has occupied for many years.
According to projections by Counterpoint Research, Samsung will end CY23 with a 18 per cent volume market share, overtaking Xiaomi after many years.
Counterpoint Research estimates that Xiaomi will end CY23 with a volume market share in CY23 to 15 per cent, pushing the Chinese company, which has faced numerous challenges and scrutiny from investigative agencies, to the third place.
Counterpoint estimates that Xiaomi will also be behind its Chinese competitor, Vivo, which has marginally increased its market share from 16 per cent in CY22 to a projected 17 per cent in CY23.
Counterpoint founder Neil Shah explained the change: As the market moved towards premiumisation and the sweet point of the price point of smart phones moved to Rs 20,000, the brands which had invested in strong brand equity, a broader portfolio, offline sales distribution and after sales service — such as Samsung — started benefitting and held their market share.
Brands such as Xiaomi or Realme which were very strong in the mass market (below Rs 20,000 segment) have seen the market opportunity shrinking a bit because this segment formed the bulk of their smartphone volumes, Shah adds.
What is interesting is that the top five smartphone brands have been collectively losing volume market share through the years due to the proliferation of smaller brands which are available at more reasonable price points.
For instance, the share of others in CY19 was only 17 per cent. In CY22, it went up to over 20 per cent. In CY23, it is estimated to hit a substantial 28 per cent.
Samsung has not been immune to this either. Though it has hit the top slot, its volume market share in CY23 has also fallen by one percentage point over CY22.
Realme has also seen its share fall over the last calendar year while Oppo has been constant at 10 per cent for the last four years, according to the data.
Shah says that due to the change in market dynamics, the top five which had a good share in the Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000 range started taking share from one another and collectively did not grow much.
Yet, the higher end of the market saw a rise in the share of brands such as Apple and at the lower end, the share of brands such as Transsion (Itel, Tecno and Infinix) grew and their overall share went up.
Xiaomi has been seeing a consistent fall in its overall volume market share from 27 per cent in CY19 to 15 per cent as projected in CY23.
From a global perspective, Counterpoint believes that Samsung, which held the number one position in volume market share of smartphones in 46 out of 74 countries analysed in CY22, is expected to lose its number one position in six of the 46 countries.
The six are the Philippines, Argentina, Ghana, Kuwait, Bulgaria and Venezuela where Samsung has lost out to Xiaomi, Apple, Realme and Tecno.
India and Malaysia will be the two countries where Samsung will rise to the top this year.
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