Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi continued to lead India’s smartphone market in the first quarter of 2021, as the company adopted a dual-track strategy of expanding its online and offline presence in the South Asian country.

In the three months through March, Xiaomi shipped 10.5 million smartphones, up 2% year-on-year, giving it a market share of 28%, according to research firm Canalys. This represents a slight decrease from 31% in the same quarter of last year.

Sanyam Chaurasia, an analyst at Canalys, attributed Xiaomi’s shipment growth to its longstanding efforts to “drive multi-brand strategy in established online channels” and its “new initiatives to grow its offline presence.”

The analyst particularly mentioned the contribution of Mi Store on Wheels, a van-based mobile retail store Xiaomi launched in September to deliver a retail experience to India’s rural areas as part of its efforts to expand its distribution network across the country.

Xiaomi’s three Chinese peers — Vivo, Oppo and Realme — all broke into the top five list of smartphone sellers in India, ranking third, fourth and fifth respectively with market shares of 18%, 13% and 12%. Oppo enjoyed the biggest year-on-year shipment growth of 35%, according to Canalys.

South Korea’s Samsung claimed second place with a market share of 19%.

Overall, smartphone shipments in India grew 11% year-on-year in the first quarter to 37.1 million units as remote education and work increased demand for smartphones amid the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Canalys expects smartphone sales in the country to plunge in the current quarter due to a second wave of coronavirus infections there.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

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