Zee Media Bureau/Rd. Alexander
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi's Mi3 was often referred to as the 'Apple' phone in China but now its appears the company has overtaken the American smartphone maker in the country.
According to reports citing Kantar Worldpanel ComTech data, Xiaomi has overtaken Apple Inc as the second biggest smartphone maker company in China with 21 percent of the market share.
As per the data available from January to May 2014, Xiaomi accounted for 21 percent of smartphone sales in the country compared to 16 percent sale made by Apple.
However, the biggest threat the Chinese smartphone maker made was to South Korean giant, Samsung, which had 23 percent sale record during the said period.
According to a survey conducted by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, 70 percent of those who bought Xiaomi device already own a smartphone and a good 17 percent of them were former Samsung smartphone users.
Just about 5 percent shift from Apple to Xiaomi while 21 percent came from Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Coolpad, and Oppo users. 18 percent came from Nokia users, the survey found.
Xiaomi had recently launched Mi3 and Mi4 which critics believe will help the company to likely nap the number one spot from Samsung.
