Samsung and Xiaomi Slug It Out For Pole Position In The Indian Smartphone Market

Samsung and Xiaomi slug it out for pole position in the Indian smartphone market.

- Rajiv Singh

It's an hour and a quarter afternoon in early August in Gurugram. Dark clouds looming ominously since early Monday morning open up. The sprawling satellite town in the Delhi National Capital Region is soon drenched in heavy monsoon showers. The streets duly get flooded and traffic begins to crawl.

The aerial view of the city, though, from the 19th floor of Two Horizon Center looks majestic. But there’s one big difference from the scenario 11 months ago. A thick cover of billboards with the green and blue logos of smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo that dotted the entire stretch of Golf Course Road in Sector 43, has vanished. Samsung, which has its India headquarters across eight floors of the 24-storied Two Horizon Center building, has weathered the onslaught of the Chinese siblings. Now it’s got to contend with another battle. With another Chinese giant. With aspirations to be top dog.

The challenger, Xiaomi, has been breathing down Samsung’s neck menacingly over the last three quarters, even emerging No 1 in two of them (see Too Close to Call). Annually, though, Samsung has been numero uno for the past two years.

“The quarter approach has never driven our business,” avers Asim Warsi, senior vice president (mobile business) at Samsung India. Samsung, according to independent market research agency Counterpoint, pipped the Chinese rival by a percentage point in the most recent quarter (ended June) to reclaim pole position with a 29 percent share.

Samsung appears in no mood to yield ground from here on, not just over quarters but over a longer period. “We take a long-term view, and that’s why over the years and for multiple years we have been No 1,” Warsi asserts. “We intend to stay the leader for many more years.”