Chinese giant Xiaomi slips out of top five as Apple hits top slot in Q1CY25

Only two brands in the top-ten have been able to increase their market share - Motorola and Google

India’s smart phone sweepstake is seeing a discernable shift. On the one hand, Chinese giant Xiaomi, which once was a key player in the Indian market, has slipped out of the top-five in terms of value share for the first time since the first quarter of calendar year 2016 (Q1CY16). Its value share fell sharply by half in Q1CY25 to hit 5 per cent from 10 per cent in Q1CY24, according to data from Counterpoint Research. In its peak, its value share based on wholesale price had touched 19 per cent in Q3CY20.

 

On the other hand, the Cupertino-headquartered Apple Inc has hit the top slot in value for the second quarter. It now accounts for one-fourth of smartphone wholesales in Q1CY25 (26 per cent share) from a fifth last year (20 per cent) in the same period. And it has done so at the expense of all its key competitors — Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi. These brands lost two percentage points each in Q1CY25 over the same period last year, which accounts for the total gain made by Apple Inc. 

 

In Q1CY24, Samsung was at the top, with Apple taking the second spot followed by Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi.

 

Only two brands in the top-ten have been able to increase their market share — Motorola doubled its value share to 4 per cent in Q1CY25, and Google moved from less than 1 per cent in Q1CY24 to 2 per cent now. New brand Nothing, founded by Carl Pei, who had earlier co-founded One Plus, has had a 1 per cent share in Q1CY25 despite the hype.

 

Tarun Pathak, head of research at Counterpoint Research, said: Ongoing premiumisation trend in India started post-Covid, and brands like Apple Inc, Samsung and Vivo that anticipated this trend and aligned their strategies backed by EMIs (equated monthly instalments) and financing schemes, were able to gain. As much as 50 per cent of these phones were on financing schemes.”

 

On the fall of Xiaomi, Pathak said: “It was because of its mass-market image and also that this segment does not prefer financing.”

 

The trend is also reflected in the fact that the ultra-premium smartphone price segment, which is over ₹45,000, has reached its highest-ever Q1 share in 2025, hitting 14 per cent driven by a 15 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth, the fastest in any segment.

 

With over 97 per cent of the smartphone market controlled by the top-ten, the consolidation in the top can be seen from the fact that the top two brands (Apple and Samsung) in Q1CY25 control nearly half of the value share of the smartphone market (49 per cent), up from 45 per cent in the same quarter last year.