India surpasses the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market

India is now the world’s second-largest smartphone market, after China. The US is now at the third spot right behind India.

According to Canalys data, India shipped 40 million phones in the third quarter of this year, 23 percent higher than the same period in 2016. China overtook the U.S. in 2011 to become the world’s largest.

An analyst from Canalys, Rushabh Doshi revealed that India has been working to improve its network coverage, and as more people get reliable 4G access, it has helped boost demand for mobile devices too.

India, the second most populous country in the world, with 1.3 billion people, is on track to have just under 300 million smartphone users in the country by the end of this year.

As expected, the vendors winning India are premium Android makers with affordable models. Samsung and Xiaomi in particular, are very strong contestants with Xiaomi rocketing past Lenovo to put up a close fight with Samsung.

Samsung, which shipped about 7 million devices in India’s 2016 third quarter, pushed that number to 9.4 million this year to keep the lead. But most impressively, Xiaomi, which had under 3 million phones sold in Q3 last year, tripled that figure this year to hit 9.2 million smartphones.

The chart below shows other smartphones brands left behind.

Xiaomi has aggressively expanded its market in India as its main focus outside its home market of China. Huawei is also expanding its reach in emerging markets and is set to sell over 100 million phones in 2017 to become the 2nd largest smartphones manufacturer around the globe.