Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, shows new features at launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4 in Beijing
Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, shows the new features at a launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4, in Beijing, July 22, 2014. China's Xiaomi unveiled on Tuesday its new flagship Mi 4 smartphone, aimed squarely at the premium handset market dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. REUTERS

According to IHS iSuppli, a Korean market research firm, Xiaomi is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Xiaomi is referred to as the Apple of China, and the market research shows Q3 2014 sales have surpassed Huawei.

GforGames, citing the Chosunilbo, has revealed that in Q3 2014, 19 million Xiaomi smartphones were shipped, whereas Huawei sold 16.8 million smartphones during the same period. Unlike other market leaders, Xiaomi is currently available in China, India, Singapore and a few other countries. In India, Xiaomi has managed to gain good popularity in a short span of time thanks to the flash sales strategy it has opted for to target the Indian audience.

Xiaomi was founded in 2010. Since then, the company has grown consistently and has now become a serious threat for market leaders like Samsung and Apple. It has taken only four years for Xiaomi to grab the third spot. It is followed by other well-known companies like Huawei, Lenovo and LG. GforGames states Xiaomi took over the third position in China by beating Apple five months ago.

The sales of Lenovo and LG for the third quarter are also impressive, but it is comparatively less than that of Xiaomi. Xiaomi had sold 5.7 million units in 2012, and in the following year, it sold 18.7 million units. In the Q1 of 2014, it sold 11 million smartphones, and in the Q2, it sold 15.1 million units. This clearly shows the remarkable popularity of Xiaomi even it is available in less number of countries. The current smartphones from Xiaomi, namely the Redmi Note and the Mi3, are immensely popular as they are available with very affordable prices.

In its home country of China, which happens to be the largest smartphone market in the world, there is fierce competition between different brands like Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Meizu, OnePlus One and Oppo to bag better market position. The top positions still belong to Samsung and Apple, but the increasing popularity of Xiaomi phones could challenge market giants to think over their market strategy.