Xiaomi launched in Ireland a couple of years ago, at the time being one of the hottest growing smartphone vendors in the world. While not much else from the company has since launched through Three, the company’s popularity never waned. You can purchase the company’s phones from European sellers, and they’re often much cheaper than the competition. Now, according to a report from Canalys, Xiaomi grew to become the second-biggest smartphone vendor in the second quarter of 2021.
According to the report (via XDA-Developers), Xiaomi has overtaken Apple and sits squarely behind Samsung for the top spot. The company made up 17% of all smartphone shipments in the second quarter this year, and it has seen an astonishingly high growth rate of 83% year-on-year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, all the other brands grew too, but nowhere near at the same rate. Canalys is a leading market analysis firm, and posts reports each quarter breaking down smartphone shipments.
Xiaomi’s growth isn’t all too surprising. Because of the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, people looking to purchase a new smartphone might be particularly cost-conscious. Xiaomi’s smartphones offer an excellent value proposition — fantastic specifications at a low price. They have phones in pretty much every price category, from sub €100 to upwards of €1000. Xiaomi also owns the POCO and Redmi brands, which themselves have proven to be quite popular in Europe and emerging markets like India.
The company has seen tremendous growth and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is one of the best phones of the year according to many reviewers (including myself), and it has also entered the foldable category with the Mi Mix Fold. Samsung is the largest smartphone vendor in the world according to quarter 2 of 2021, but not by much. If Xiaomi maintains its current growth rate, it likely won’t be long until Xiaomi overtakes them too.
