Moscow, Nov 19 (IANS): Chinese smartphone player Xiaomi has become the fifth largest smartphone brand in Russia during Q3 2017, according to the latest research from Counterpoint's Market Monitor service.

"Xiaomi grew by 325 per cent YoY and was the fastest growing smartphone brand in Russia in both online as well as offline sales," the Associate Director at Counterpoint Research (Counterpoint Technology Market Research), Tarun Pathak, said in a statement.

Smartphone shipments in Russia grew by 7 per cent annually and 38 per cent sequentially during Q3 2017.

"The Russian handset market grew during this quarter driven by aggressive marketing campaigns by new Chinese brands and subsequent price cuts from all the leading retail chains as consumer spending during third quarter of the year normally remains high due to the new academic year and a 'back-to-school' uptick," said Minakshi Sharma, Research Associate at Counterpoint Research (Counterpoint Technology Market Research).

The online channel smartphone contribution has increased from 12 per cent to 15 per cent YoY in Russia. During this quarter, Xiaomi and Apple were among the leading smartphone brands in online sales.

"Apple reached record sales during the third quarter, growing 56 per cent YoY due to a drop in the prices of its previous generation iPhone models, prior to the launch of the new iPhones," Pathak said.

Samsung led the overall and smartphone market with market shares of 20 per cent and 29 per cent respectively during Q3 2017.

Global brands captured almost 58 per cent of the smartphone market followed by Chinese brands with 32 per cent market share.

Xiaomi (325 per cent), Bright and Quick (177 per cent) and Huawei (140 per cent) were the fastest growing Chinese brands YoY.

However, local smartphone brands like Tele2 and Prestigio grew by 61 per cent and 54 per cent QoQ respectively.