Realme grew at massive 263% in 2019 while Xiaomi witnessed a ‘flat’ growth

Xiaomi led the market with 28.6% share and registered annual shipments of 43.6 million units in 2019 - the highest ever smartphone shipments made by any brand in a year - but the growth slumped in 2019.

Realme XT (Realme)

The three smartphone brands from the China-based BBK Group -- led by Realme -- were the fastest growing brands in the calendar year 2019, while Xiaomi remained flat and Samsung went into negative growth (year-over-year), the International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Friday.

Xiaomi led the market with 28.6% share and registered annual shipments of 43.6 million units in 2019 -- the highest ever smartphone shipments made by any brand in a year -- but the growth slumped to 9.2% (YoY) in 2019 from 2018.

Realme at fifth position with 10.6% market share saw a massive 263.5% growth, Vivo with 15.6% market share registered 67% growth and OPPO with 10.7% market share logged 60.5% growth in the calendar year 2019.

Samsung with 20.6% market share saw -2.8% growth in 2019. Its Galaxy M series, particularly Galaxy M30s, performed well in the online segment, according to the IDC 'Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.'

Overall, the BBK Group -- sans its OnePlus brand -- registered 36.9% market share.

"Vivo became the leader in the offline channel. The continued focus on its offline channel, despite the exclusive line-up in online channel and presence across price segments, led to this phenomenal rise in 2019," said the IDC report.

OPPO climbed to the fourth position in the fourth quarter in 2019, with a huge YoY growth of 88.4% on the back of its affordable A series and successful Reno 2 series.

Ironically, other smartphone brands like Nokia, LG, Sony, Blackberry declined by whopping 46% in terms of market share.

In the mid-premium ($300-500) segment, Vivo continued to lead the market with 28% share in 2019, on the back of the high-selling vivo V15 Pro, followed by OnePlus at 20.2% share owing to the OnePlus 7 model.