Smartphone shipments: Xiaomi grew 52% but still finished sixth

IHS Markit’s smartphone shipment data for Q2 2017 has revealed plenty of growth in the industry, up 7% compared to a year ago. But who were the top performers?

Data showed that Samsung, Apple and Huawei occupied the top three positions, growing by 3%, 2% and 20% respectively. Meanwhile, BBK’s Oppo and Vivo brands filled out fourth and fifth spots, growing by 39% and 45% respectively.

The analytics firm credited Oppo and Vivo’s growth to the Chinese market, but the companies have spread to India in recent years.

Xiaomi missed out on a top five spot by 0.7 million units, IHS Markit wrote on its website. But the manufacturer reversed four quarters of declining shipments to grow by a massive 52% year on year.

“Increased retail channel availability in China and growth in its international markets, like India and Russia, are responsible for this growth. Xiaomi was able to separate itself from its closest competitors LG, Lenovo and ZTE.”

The “other” category also saw a decline of 9% year on year.

“This number includes LG, which declined from 13.9 million units shipped last year to 13.3 million units this quarter. The launch of the G6 earlier this year, featuring a trend hardware feature in its 18:9 aspect-ratio display, has not enabled LG to consolidate — or grow — its position in the market,” IHS elaborated.