Integral to the company’s operations is its smartphone business. As of 2019, Xiaomi smartphones account for around 9.2 percent of the global smartphone market, trailing only Apple, Samsung, and Huawei in terms of market share. In its home market, Xiaomi has the fourth highest market share behind three other local brands, Huawei, OPPO and vivo. It has, however, seen great success in the Indian market, having overtaken Samsung to become the market leader in the Indian smartphone market, with a market presence of close to 30 percent. The Xiaomi Redmi 8 series, including the Redmi 8 and Note 8, are some of the best-selling smartphone models in India as of early 2020.
Another key segment of Xiaomi’s business is its wearables division. Since first entering the market in July 2014 with its Mi Band, the company has overtaken the long established market leader, Fitbit, and challenged the Apple Watch for the most popular new product in the market. In 2019, the company shipped 41.7 million wearable devices, second only to Apple, whose massive 106.5 million unit sales guaranteed comfortably its market leader position.
Driven by the success of its smartphone and wearables products, Xiaomi has recently entered the smart home and connected device market. The company’s app, Mi Home, manages all of their smart home products and hardware offerings, including everything from smart vacuums to smart rice cookers. Xiaomi shipped nearly 3.2 million smart speakers in the first quarter of 2019 alone, and its SmartRobot vacuum has been an instant success. In combination with its manufacture of smart home devices, the company has also heavily invested into the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), in an attempt to improve existing products and eventually integrate compatible technology offerings into more aspects of consumers’ everyday lives. The company’s AI assistant has over 60 million monthly active users, and with over 330 newly processed artificial intelligence patents, even bigger things are expected in the future.
