Track Hyper | Xiaomi 15 Series: Daily Sales Average Nearly 170,000 Units

Author: Zhou Yuan / Wall Street Insight

If you only look at the launch event of the Xiaomi 15 series, you might not expect this series to become the best-selling model in Xiaomi's history.

On November 9, Lu Weibing, partner, president, head of the mobile phone department, and general manager of the Xiaomi brand, confirmed during a live broadcast that the sales of the Xiaomi 15 series smartphones have surpassed 1 million units, and the speed at which this series reached over a million units is faster than that of the previous generation Xiaomi 14 series.

The Xiaomi 15 series is currently Xiaomi's top high-end flagship model, launched on October 29 and went on sale on November 31.

Starting from the Xiaomi 11 series, Xiaomi's journey into high-end smartphones has gone through the trial of the Xiaomi 11 series, the initial steps of the Xiaomi 12 series, profitability with the Xiaomi 13 series, explosive sales of the Xiaomi 14 series, and the Xiaomi 15 series breaking the million-unit sales mark in the shortest time, showing a trend of significant achievement.

Since the launch of the Xiaomi 11 series on December 28, 2020, Lei Jun, founder, chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi Group, has propelled the dream of high-end Xiaomi smartphones to a new starting point.

This is a brand new historical starting point. Is the global smartphone market ready to welcome another high-end smartphone brand from China?

The 15 Series Propels Xiaomi to First Place in W44

Exclusive information obtained by Wall Street Insight from the supply chain shows that within 4 days of the Xiaomi 15 series going on sale, from October 31 to November 3, the daily sales of the Xiaomi 15 series reached nearly 170,000 units, with total sales exceeding 680,000 units.

This sales figure is already catching up to the popularity of the Apple iPhone 16 series at its launch, and even the Huawei Mate 60 series, which made a surprise market entry on August 29, 2023, cannot compare to the Xiaomi 15 series. Of course, this may also be due to the limited production capacity of the Mate 60 series at that time.

Additionally, market news indicates that in W44, from October 28 to November 3, the combined single product Top 10 ranking in the Chinese smartphone market shows that the Xiaomi 15 series directly took the crown, surpassing the iPhone 16 Pro series.

Authoritative statistical data from a reliable agency obtained exclusively by Wall Street Insight also shows that in W44, Xiaomi's market share reached an astonishing 22.5%, surpassing Huawei's 16.4% and Apple's 16.3%, ranking first in the Chinese smartphone market.

In W44, the only new model from Xiaomi was the Xiaomi 15 series, which went on sale on October 31.

However, the inventory of the Xiaomi 15 series seems to be insufficient, as sales have significantly declined in recent times.

"The inventory for the Xiaomi 15 series was indeed too conservative during preparation," Wall Street Insight learned from reliable sources. "We didn't expect this series to sell so well. Xiaomi is speeding up the inventory process." Lu Weibing also previously apologized to consumers for the shortage of some versions of the Xiaomi 15 and promised that production has been arranged to catch up with supply.

Xiaomi's journey into high-end smartphones began with the Xiaomi 11 series, followed by the announcement of deep cooperation with Leica during the launch of the 12 series. According to supply chain news, by the time of the Xiaomi 13 series, Xiaomi had achieved profitability; after the launch of the Xiaomi 14 series, it became the most popular high-end flagship model in Xiaomi's history at that time. However, some market commentators believed that the explosive sales of the Xiaomi 14 series were due to two reasons— First, the Xiaomi 14 series was the first to launch with Qualcomm's annual mobile flagship platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, enjoying an exclusive period of about 10 days. This means that the Xiaomi 14 series, equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform, was the only smartphone in the market featuring Qualcomm's latest flagship mobile platform during that approximately 10-day period.

Secondly, Huawei suddenly launched the Huawei Mate 60 series directly to the market, which was the first high-end flagship equipped with domestically produced chips (the rumored Kirin 9100) after the well-known events that Huawei encountered, igniting a market enthusiasm for purchasing domestic high-end flagship models that had been building up for about 4-5 years.

The so-called domestically produced chips refer to chips whose manufacturers are also Chinese companies. From design to manufacturing, they possess independent intellectual property rights in China, which is considered a purely domestic high-end chip.

Due to reasons well known in the market, the Huawei Mate 60 series faced supply shortages at that time, creating a gap in market demand, which the Xiaomi 14 series happened to fill.

During the time window when the Huawei Mate 60 was in short supply due to tight production capacity, the Xiaomi 14 series had sufficient supply and was relatively cheaper, starting at 3,999 yuan.

With these two factors combined, the Xiaomi 14 series became very popular in the market, with sales exceeding one million units in a very short time.

So, how short is this very short time? Is there any quantifiable data?

Catching Up to Huawei: Four Years of Success in High-End Market

This time, the Xiaomi 15 series surpassed one million units in sales, and Lu Weibing did not disclose the specific time frame, but he stated, "The speed at which this series reached one million units is faster than that of the previous generation Xiaomi 14 series."

A week after the Xiaomi 14 series went on sale in 2023, Xiaomi Group founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun responded on Weibo to market rumors about the Xiaomi 14 series surpassing one million units in sales within a week, stating, "The sales of the Xiaomi 14 have indeed exceeded one million units, but there is still a serious shortage, and we are working hard to expedite orders. Please be patient."

If we refer to the Xiaomi 14 series reaching one million units in sales within a week, then the Xiaomi 15 series should also achieve "breaking a hundred" within a week, and at a faster rate than the Xiaomi 14 series.

When the Xiaomi 15 series was launched, it no longer had the two conditions that the Xiaomi 14 series had at its launch in 2023. The iPhone 16 series had already been on sale since September 20; the vivo X200 series launched on October 19; and the OPPO Find X8 series launched on October 30.

Additionally, the starting prices for the vivo X200 series and OPPO Find X8 series were 4,299 yuan and 4,199 yuan, respectively, while the Xiaomi 15 series, which launched last among these three flagship models on October 31, had a starting price of 4,499 yuan, only slightly cheaper than the iPhone 16 series starting at 5,999 yuan. However, the starting price of MOV domestic flagships has always been lower than that of the Apple iPhone series.

Therefore, if the success of the Xiaomi 14 series can be attributed to leveraging certain advantages, then the popularity of the Xiaomi 15 series is a true reflection of brand momentum From the perspective of hardware configuration, the Xiaomi 15 series does not have outstanding advantages compared to its predecessor, and there is no significant major version iteration in technology. When explaining the selling points of the Xiaomi 15 series, Xiaomi focuses on emotional aspects such as design, color, and feel—Lei Jun introduced over 40 colors for the Xiaomi 15 series, which is a first in the history of global smartphones.

Several market observers (including competitors of Xiaomi, supply chain personnel, and industry analysts) believe that the explosive success of high-end flagship smartphones from the Xiaomi 14 series onwards is attributed to the brand momentum brought by Xiaomi's successful launch of its first car—the Xiaomi SU7.

These individuals share a consensus that the phenomenon-level automotive product "Xiaomi SU7" has successfully elevated the brand momentum of Xiaomi, and Xiaomi's dialogue with female users through the SU7 has also been very successful, thus this brand momentum surrounding Xiaomi's high-end flagship smartphones has been widely accepted by the market.

What is the influence of this brand momentum?

According to exclusive information obtained by Wall Street Insight from multiple authoritative supply chain channels on November 28, 2023, nearly 40% of new users among buyers of the Xiaomi 14 series came from former users of Apple or Huawei.

Based on the current sales speed of the Xiaomi 15 series, if Xiaomi resolves the inventory issue— the insufficient inventory of the Xiaomi 15 series is not of the same nature as the difficulties faced by Huawei's Mate 60 in 2023, thus Xiaomi will inevitably resolve this issue quickly. In this case, the Xiaomi 15 series is expected to become the first high-end flagship in Xiaomi's history to exceed 10 million units in sales.

Looking back in history, the first model that allowed Huawei to establish itself in the high-end flagship smartphone market was the Mate 7 series, which achieved sales of over 7 million units; if the sales of the Xiaomi 15 series can exceed 10 million, then Xiaomi's path to high-end smartphones will surely be greatly successful.

This is a higher starting point than Huawei's establishment in the high-end smartphone market back then. Since Xiaomi launched the 11 series on December 18, 2020, Lei Jun's efforts to push Xiaomi smartphones towards the high-end have entered a new stage.

Wall Street Insight notes that Huawei established its current Consumer Business Group (CBG) in 2010, beginning to promote the high-end positioning of Huawei smartphones.

Four years later, in 2014, the Huawei Mate 7 series achieved over 7 million units in sales, securing its entry ticket to the high-end smartphone market. Since then, Huawei smartphones have formed a competitive stance alongside Apple and Samsung in the high-end market.

Xiaomi has also been targeting the high-end market for exactly four years; will the global high-end smartphone landscape shift from a three-way competition to a four-way battle?

Regardless of the outcome, with two of the four global leaders coming from China, this is a victory for China's high-end manufacturing. Of course, Xiaomi still needs to prove its high-end capabilities in the global market