As it continues to expand to other regions across the globe, not even the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped Xiaomi from overtaking Apple to become the third biggest smartphone vendor in the world.
While the overall smartphone market has declined by 5.7% in the third quarter of 2020 according to a report by Gartner, Xiaomi managed to grow by 34.9% and capture 12.1% of the market, effectively overtaking Apple by 1% even if it has yet entered the US market.
While Huawei managed to retain second place with 14.1% of the market share, it is the biggest loser as it incur a -21.3% growth—which is partly caused by the US Trade Ban an the restrictions imposed on Huawei when it comes to procuring materials. As for Apple, its -0.6% growth is attributed to the delayed launch of the iPhone 12 series.
While Apple is expected to recover in the 4th quarter, Xiaomi’s growth globally is noteworthy, as it shows how Xiaomi is growing despite everything that happened in 2020–and even grabbing a share of what Huawei lost due to the US Trade Ban.