Not Google Pixel, Not Motorola: The Most Popular Phone Behind iPhone And Samsung

Apple and Samsung occupy the majority of the global smartphone market, and if you look for alternative choices beyond these two brands, the Google Pixel series seems like a great option. Even Motorola makes some good phones like the 2025 Razr Ultra, but neither of these brands capture the market share like Xiaomi. The Chinese smartphone maker is slowly carving its way into the top phone brands' market share, and its sub-brand Redmi is one of the main reasons for such explosive growth. Statcounter's mobile vendor market share worldwide graph shows Xiaomi as the fourth most-used mobile phone brand, with a huge lead over its competitors.

Oppo captures 5.64% market share at the fifth position, while Xiaomi sits at 8.84% as of May 2026. Google and Motorola capture 2.69% and 3.37%, respectively, as mentioned in the latest report. The Redmi A5 smartphone earned a spot in the top 10 best sellers list curated by Counterpoint for two successive quarters (Q4 2025 and Q1 2026). The phone is particularly popular in the Middle East, South America, and Africa due to its budget-friendly pricing.

Xiaomi doesn't sell smartphones in the U.S. due to regulatory challenges and business hurdles. However, it's a massive smartphone brand in China. It has a major consumer base in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and several other regions. 

Xiaomi uses a different strategy compared to Apple and Google, manufacturing phones for the budget-friendly, mid-range, and premium smartphone segments. Nearly 50% of Xiaomi's revenue comes from smartphones, and Redmi is the biggest contributor in this product category. The company doesn't highlight the individual number of phones each brand sells annually. However, the Redmi budget phones appearing on Counterpoint's best-selling global smartphone list suggest that it's one of Xiaomi's highest-volume smartphone series.

The Redmi A5 is a budget smartphone with entry-level hardware specifications, 4G network compatibility, and basic software support. Still, it is a perfect fit for users who need a cheap Android smartphone. Redmi phones have constantly been a part of the list for quite some time. Before Redmi A5, the Redmi 14C 4G clinched a ninth spot on the list in the second quarter of 2025. A couple of years back, the Redmi 13 C and Redmi 12C remained on the top 10 list in 2023 and 2024. 

Google Pixel and a few Motorola phones cater to the premium user segment in select countries. You can buy a Google Pixel in popular countries like the U.S., U.K., and a few others, but Xiaomi's strategy is quite the opposite. You can easily purchase a Xiaomi phone in over 100 countries, making it the next big global phone brand after Samsung and Apple, just by appealing to a mass audience.

The entry barrier is very low, and you can easily find a $150-200 Redmi phone with dual SIM support and a high capacity battery. Motorola has a budget lineup like Xiaomi, but it positions itself as a near-stock Android experience, rather than offering a heavily customized interface like Xiaomi's HyperOS. Xiaomi phones try to appear as a better value-for-money proposition with more features, and offer solid specifications at competitive prices. Xiaomi maintains a separate lineup of premium phones that are also showing a positive year-on-year growth, but the budget lineup remains its biggest advantage.