Xiaomi outperforms Apple in Q4 2019 compared to last year

According to a report by IDC (International Data Corporation, a US research firm), global phone sales decreased by 1.1% globally in Q4 2019. In contrast, Xiaomi's sales in the same quarter increased by 31.1% compared to the same quarter last year. This is the highest level of growth among the top 5 phone manufacturers. Apple underperformed Xiaomi in the same comparison, with a decrease of 7.9%, 1.2% for Samsung and 7.1% for Huawei.

Xiaomi CEO, Xiaomi's CEO, reacted to the news on Weibo (quasi Chinese Facebook), writing that Xiaomi will work even harder in 2020.

At the end of yesterday, Xiaomi's share price was 12.54 HK, or about 494 cents. The company's total market capitalisation is HK 301.195 billion, which is equivalent to about 11940 billion forints.

Anthory Scarsella, research director of IDC's quarterly tracking report on the global mobile phone market, said 2019 is the third year in a row that phone sales have declined overall, and neither the fifth-generation mobile network nor the introduction of bendable phones have changed that. While the global market declined, some major manufacturers, such as Xiaomi and Apple, or Oppo (which owns the OnePlus brand), performed well in the fourth quarter of 2019, thanks to new models and a greater focus on the overseas market. For Xiaomi and Oppo, strong growth is expected in the Western European market, as it happened for Huawei a few years ago.

The emergence of affordable 5G-capable smartphones could perhaps stimulate the market and, after 3 consecutive years of "decline", we could have another year of overall growth in the global smartphone market.

What do you think could be the innovation or development that could boost this market?