Asia's high-tech upstarts take on Samsung, Apple

[SINGAPORE] Xiaomi may be little known outside China, but the fast-growing smartphone maker is at the forefront of a new wave of Asian brands challenging the dominance of Apple and Samsung with high-spec, low-price phones.

In the three months to March, Xiaomi surpassed Apple and other established Asian players such as Huawei and Sony to become the third largest smartphone brand in China by market share, research firm Counterpoint Technology said.

Samsung holds the top spot at 18 per cent, followed by homegrown Lenovo with 12 per cent. The Beijing-based tech upstart sold 18.7 million phones in 2013, and is targeting sales of 60 million this year and 100 million in 2015.