In the past week, all eyes were on the debut of Xiaomi's car, the SU7, which stirred up industry discussions. However, let's not forget that Xiaomi was primarily known as a smartphone brand before this, competing alongside other smartphone brands. So, amidst the buzz around their automotive venture, how did Xiaomi's smartphones fare?
This question is actually quite easy to answer. You can simply refer to the activation data provided by the industry insider "Smart Chip Guide" every Friday. As per the usual, on March 29th, he provided the latest weekly data (Week 12, March 18th-24th). According to the data he provided, for this week, Honor ranked first with a market share of 16.6%. Huawei followed in second place with a share of 16.3%, with Huawei accounting for 14.5% and Huawei Honor accounting for 1.7%. Vivo ranked third with a market share of 16.2%, with Vivo accounting for 12.3% and iQOO accounting for 3.9%. The OPPO series ranked fourth, with OPPO at 12.6%, OnePlus at 1.9%, and realme at 1.4%. Apple ranked fifth with a market share of 15.6%, while Xiaomi ranked sixth with a market share of 15.3%.
It's important to note that this ranking is unconventional. If we were to follow the conventional ranking (excluding Huawei from Honor, and OPPO from realme), the picture would be quite different. In this ranking, Honor still holds the top spot (16.6%), with vivo now at second place (16.2%), followed by Apple at third (15.6%), Xiaomi at fourth (15.3%), and Huawei and OPPO tied for fifth at 14.5%.
PS: It's worth noting the final remarks from the industry insider, which clarifies the distinction between conventional and unconventional rankings. As savvy netizens can discern (from the comparison with the chart), the data provided by major analytics firms is typically based on conventional rankings. This is why controversies arise almost every week.
It seems like this quarter might be the first time Vivo didn't rank first, but the gap between them and the top spot is just 0.4 percentage points. Also, there's still one week of data left for the first quarter that hasn't been disclosed yet, so it shouldn't be a problem for Vivo to clinch the top spot for the quarter. Additionally, it's worth noting that competition in the domestic market is exceptionally fierce right now, with the gaps between these brands barely widening. The difference between first place and sixth place is only two percentage points.
