The Redmi Note 4, it seems, has single handedly propelled Chinese brand Xiaomi to become India's top smartphone vendor. According to data released by research firm IDC, Xiaomi has joined hands with Samsung to become the number one smartphone company in the country for the quarter (Q3) ending September. Both Samsung and Xiaomi now hold 23.5 per cent share of India's smartphone market, followed by Lenovo (Motorola), Vivo and Oppo at 9 per cent, 8.5 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively.

"Xiaomi's aggressive pricing made the brand a clear winner in selling devices on eTailers and direct internet platform. The brand's offline expansion through preferred partner program and mi stores is also getting a good response as its shipments doubled from the last quarter," said IDC.

Im extremely humbled to announce that @XiaomiIndia has become the No. 1 Smartphone Brand in India, as per @IDC's latest Quarterly Smartphone Tracker (Q3 2017)!! ?? A journey that started 3 years ago has now turned into an unbelievable legacy! #1SmartphoneBrandXiaomi pic.twitter.com/LNDIC4s7Yp - Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) November 14, 2017

Xiaomi's tryst with online (flash) sales has become a gold standard as far as businesses are concerned. The company -- that seemingly pioneered the strategy of online flash sales - entered India only three years ago and already it has caught up with Samsung, the South Korean giant that has been here for a very long time now.

Also Read: Xiaomi Redmi Y1 review: Good selfies but display, rear camera hold it back

After having marked its presence - via online sales - Xiaomi started building its offline business aggressively from Q1 2017 ushering in a three pronged strategy for the same which involves Large Format Retailer partners, Mi Preferred Partner stores and our own Mi Home stores. The company plans on opening as many as 200 Mi Home stores in the country in the next two years. And it's looking to connect them as aggressively under what it calls its O2O strategy (Online to Offline and vice versa) and through it, it aims to direct traffic from its online channels such as mi.com/in to its offline channels and direct the traffic back to mi.com from its offline stores.

Xiaomi phones, although value for money, were notorious for being out of stock almost all the time, once upon a time. An online-only sales approach also meant it was impossible for people to personally try out these phones before making a purchase. Offline presence now solves both the purposes.

Only last month, Counterpoint Research said that Xiaomi was within reaching distance of Samsung's number one ranking. Many believed Xiaomi would catch on, in the days come, but not many would have imagined that it would catch up so soon. But now that it has, Xiaomi has even more work to do: to maintain the momentum and carry on. The company can't rest its laurels on one Redmi Note 4. The upcoming phones have to be as good, if not better.

"In the coming few quarters, both Samsung and Xiaomi would need to further strengthen their channel play and significantly differentiate their products on technology and quality to sustain and fight for leadership in this hyper competitive smartphone market," Upasana Joshi, senior analyst, IDC India said.