Xiaomi and Vivo Shipped More Phones in Q1 2020, Samsung Shipped 13.6 Million Less

Written by Ashley Ang

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For the first time, Vivo has grown to become the smartphone market leader in Indonesia. Not only that, but Vivo and Xiaomi were the only companies in the top 5 to report year-on-year (YoY) growths despite worldwide smartphone shipments decreasing by 11.7% YoY in Q1 2020.

Credit: IDC

In the first quarter of 2020, Vivo achieved a shipment volume of 24.8 million units and ranked at the fifth spot behind Samsung, Huawei, Apple and Xiaomi with a 9% market share. Vivo, however, has the largest annual growth rate amongst the five at 7% YoY market growth in Q1 2020 while Xiaomi came in second with a 6.1% YoY growth.

As seen from the table above, Huawei’s YoY growth also contracted by 17.1%, undoubtedly because of the ban that was implemented last year. But the biggest contraction is Samsung, shipping 13.6 million units fewer than in Q1 2019, with a 18.9% decline in YoY growth.

In Indonesia, Vivo reported its highest shipment volume in Q1 2020. With Indonesian consumers being some of the most price-conscious around, Vivo’s strategy to focus on marketing and promotions around low and mid-range smartphones seems to have paid off. Not to be deterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has adapted by enhancing e-commerce channels and introducing Home Delivery Service in the country.

India is another growing market for both brands. With a YoY growth of 63.3% in Q1 2020, Vivo achieved second place behind Xiaomi in terms of shipments and a market share of 21% in this quarter.

With the smartphone market looking to take a major downturn this year, it’ll definitely be interesting to see how the companies innovate to stay ahead of the competition.