While the smartphone market in China is on a decline, manufacturers from the country are looking at the global market for expansion, per a report by Gizmochina which attributes the information to sources in the Taiwanese supply chain.
According to the report, China’s top five manufacturers including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, all plan to expand to other countries and aggressively expand their global presence. The source particularly disclosed Xiaomi planning a huge rise in shipment volumes in 2018. The Chinese manufacturer is expected to ship between 120 million to 150 million smartphone units this year.
Earlier, IDC had reported Xiaomi is presently shipping more than 10 million Redmi and Mi smartphones worldwide in Q1 2018. The 120 million target certainly seems lofty, but going by the growth Xiaomi has experience in the past few quarters, the company might be able to achieve it.
In India, the company’s focus has shifted to the offline market. By expanding the number of Mi Home Stores and Mi Service Centers, Xiaomi is now has the highest market share of 26.8 per cent, according to IDC. The company pipped Samsung this year to reach the top. Globally, Xiaomi doubled its market share to 7 percent from 3.3 percent in Q4 2017.
Xiaomi is also planning to enter US smartphone market this year. While it already sells some products including the Mi Box and select Mi TV models in the US, the fate of the smartphone will depend on how the network carriers treat Xiaomi. Huawei’s entry was recently obstructed after carriers chose to stop selling the phone.