It’s borderline unthinkable, but it’s a fact nonetheless.

Samsung is the world’s undisputed number-one when it comes to Smartphone sales – there’s barely a brand on the planet that comes close in sheer sales-volume stakes. Apple’s iPhone may the single best-selling device of its type, but the number of Samsung Smartphone sales on the whole pretty much wipe the floor with every other big name in the book.

That is of course, unless you happen to live in China.

Samsung has officially been knocked off its perch in China – the fastest growing Smartphone market in the world and largely considered to be the most important of all. Had they lost the crown to the likes of Apple or Sony, it’s unlikely that too many eyelids would have been batted. That fact that it’s now Xiaomi in gold medal position has taken a fair few pundits off-guard.

If you haven’t even heard of Xiaomi thus far, don’t feel too bad about it. Xiaomi has only been on the market for four years and has barely scratched the surface outside its native China, which is why those in other major markets like the US and Europe probably won’t have ever seen one of their devices before. In China though, Xiaomi managed to scoop up a 14% share of all Smartphones sold in the Chinese market for the second quarter of this year. Not only did this mean a whopping 15 million device sales, but also improvement of 240% compared to the same quarter last year and more than enough to overtake Samsung.

Suffice to say, analysts and observers alike have been unanimously blown away by the achievements of Xiaomi to date.

“This is a phenomenal achievement for Xiaomi,” said Jingwen Wang, an analyst with Canalys.

“Xiaomi does now need to deliver LTE products in China to address growing demand for 4G services if it is to retain its momentum.”

It’s of course worth noting that the race for Smartphone supremacy is much more closely-run in China than in most western markets. Xiaomi may have taken the lead with its 14% share for Q2, but is closely followed by Huawei, Yulong, Lenovo and Samsung – all of which have at least 10% of the market or more.

A new report suggest that by the end of next year, around 35% of the world’s total population will own Smartphones – fantastic growth attributed largely to up and coming markets like India.

As the world’s population slowly but surely bids farewell to feature phones in favor of Smartphones, the future looks to be one where the latter leads by a huge margin. According to the latest roundup of figures from Strategy Analytics, there will be no less than 2.5 billion Smartphones in use by the end of 2015 on a global basis.

Just to put it into some perspective, that equates to a full 35% of the world’s population.

Much of the west has been invested in the Smartphone revelation for over a decade now, but the recent surge in device adoption has been credited largely to up and coming markets like that of India. The reason being that the vast majority of consumers that intend to buy a Smartphone in the US, UK and Europe for example have already done do – they may upgrade or replace them, but they’ve already been converted to the Smartphone way of life.

By contrast, affordable Smartphones with excellence specs and features are rapidly winning over buyers in India and many other Asia-Pacific regions. Growth over recent years in the world’s developing markets has been ginormous and is not expected to slow down at any time in the near future at least.

“The Asia-Pacific region holds the most number of smartphone users while Europe and North America have the highest portion of people holding the high-tech handsets among all mobile phone users,” read the report.

Should the report’s predictions prove accurate, then by the end of next year almost a third of all men, women and children on the planet will be Smartphone users.

While social media interest and use may be tapering off across much of the world, a huge 37% spike in India suggests things are quite different in this part of the world.

Indian’s are displaying signs of a refreshed love affair with social networks, with data suggesting that Twitter and Facebook traffic has hit an all-time high. According to the latest roundup of figures from eMarketer in the US, 2013 brought an extraordinary 37% growth to the Indian market’s combined social networking tally.

“Indians are increasingly logging into Facebook and Twitter accounts, with the country recording the highest social networking growth of 37.4% in 2013,” the company reported.

The news comes at the same time as rather gloomier reports from other key markets, where it seems the public’s lover for social media has hit a seemingly unstoppable slide. In the US, the UK and parts of Europe for example, Facebook’s general reputation and appeal has been tapering off for years.

Things are looking rather different for India however as while social media users topped a respectable 63 million just a couple of year back, this has since exploded to a massive 80 million. This in turn means that India has come out of nowhere to become Facebook’s second biggest market in the world, with only the US recording more subscribers and active users.

The Celkon Millennium Vogue Q455 is making its way out into the Indian market, proving that even the smallest outlay can stretch to a seriously decent phone these days.

It’s becoming clear across India and beyond that what matters above and beyond OTT hardware is plain and simple value for money. Buyers are no longer setting their sights on the highest of the high-end just for the sake of it, but are instead choosing Smartphones that make their money go as far as possible.

And that’s where the dual-SIM Celkon Millennium Vogue Q455 comes into the equation, having just seen its launch into the Indian market where it’s likely to do a good job holding its own in entry-level stakes. With an unlocked price of just Rs 7,999 it’s not as if you’re going to be taking home a powerhouse, but it’s worth remembering that what’s considered entry-level in mid-2014 would have set you back a small fortune just a year or two ago.

So, what do you get for your Rs 7,999 with the Celkon Millennium Vogue Q455? Well, things get off to a good start with Android 4.4 KitKat, which means no messing about with updates right away. There’s a 4.5-inch display that packs in 540 by 960 pixels, which to be frank is solid enough. Under the hood lies a quad-core CPU running at 1.2GHz backed by 1GB of RAM, there’s an impressive 16GB or storage space that can be bumped up with a micro-SD and there’s even an 8-megapixel primary camera to the rear.

All of this is packed into a super-slim 7.9mm case which looks and feels so much more high-end than it really is.

The full-scale rollout of the Celkon Millennium Vogue Q455 is yet to take place, but chances are as soon as it becomes widely available it will give a fair few entry-level players a serious run for their money.

High-end Indian Smartphone buyers are about to be lavished with another top-tier toy to play with in the form of the stunning Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro.

The Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro is officially making its way to the Indian market, as further details creep out as to what to expect, when and for how much. Having made its first appearance at Asia Expo last month and remained rather on the quiet side ever since, the Vibe Z’s successor has been laid bare by Arthur Wei, CMO for Lenovo.

Some of the specifics are yet to be confirmed, but we at least now know exactly what’s on the table in terms of hardware and prowess.

Right up there with the best the market’s seen to date, the Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU running at 2.5GHz, 3GB of RAM to keep it all running smooth as silk, a gigantic 6-inch touchscreen with 1,440 by 2,560 resolution, a stunning 16-megapixel camera to the rear and a 5-megapixerl shooter up-front. It will also come with a 4,000mAh battery and 32GB as standard…whether or not this will be expandable remains to be seen.

On the whole therefore it’s about the most powerful Phablet the Indian market will have seen to date and could potentially be quite the bargain in the making. The prior Vibe Z offered a similarly game-changing hardware lineup and sols for just Rs 35,999 off-contract, which compared to comparable rivals was not a bad price to pay at all.

It’s largely expected that the Z2 Pro will start from about the same price, in which case it stands every chance of hitting enormous highs across India following its launch later this summer.

t’s been suggested that the long-awaited sixth-generation Nexus Smartphone from Google will not in fact be the work of HTC, but has instead been passed to the more-than capable hands of Motorola.

There’s a new double-headed rumor on the subject of Google’s Nexus 6 doing the rounds this morning, painting a rather different picture than any we’ve heard to date.

It’s no secret that Smartphones seem to be getting bigger by the day, with top-tier lines in particular pushing the boundaries of what’s useful and what’s simply OTT. This is a trend Google appears to be following with its next Nexus Smartphone, as the latest word suggests we could be looking at a massive 5.9-inch screen, as opposed to the 5.5-inches previously rumored.

And if that wasn’t enough to prompt a wee bit of head-scratching, we’re now being told that it will not in fact be HTC or LG behind the device after all.

Instead, the sixth-generation Nexus could be the work of Motorola.

Now, technically speaking this isn’t hard to believe given how Google and Motorola are now quite literally joined at the hip. As such, the Smartphone we’re now being told is going by the codename of “Shamu” could represent a key turning point for the joint brands, should they collaborate on such an important product.

Not that HTC fans need despair however as while the Smartphone project may have gone to another party, the Taiwanese tech firm is apparently still on board for the Nexus 9 tablet PC. The general consensus seems to point to at least two own-brand HTC tablets launching before the end of the year along with the Nexus 9 itself, though no official word has yet been offered by any of the involved parties.

Still, it’s just cause for the iPad’s development team to be losing at least a little sleep at night.

OnePlus has announced the launch of the incredible ‘One’ Smartphone for the Indian market, which in terms of bang-for-buck is a simply unbeatable deal in every respect.

There’s a rather welcome Chinese invasion going on right now across India – one that’s seen some of the East’s most impressive and desirable Smartphones flood an increasingly discerning market. Xiaomi has already made its mark in India and is now set to be followed by the show-stopping OnePlus One, which in terms of value for money is pretty unbeatable.

OnePlus announced on its official blog that it would be making an entry to the Indian market and so far the response has been unanimously favorable.

The OnePlus One will be looking to continue its international success, by offering a stellar makeup of specs and features for a truly rock-bottom price. In the market’s where the One is currently on sale, it ships for a price of $299 off-contract and SIM-free…that’s a about Rs 18,000 at the current rate of exchange. This will net you the 16GB version, while the higher 64GB is still a steal at $349, which is in the region of Rs 21,500.

This isn’t the kind of cash that usually stretches to too much, but in this instance is enough to snare a 5.5-inch touchscreen with full 1080p HD resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 running at 2.5GHz, a massive 3GB of RAM and a brilliant 13-megapixel camera. In any respect therefore it’s an absolute winner, but with an unlocked price of just $299 there’s really nothing else on the market right now that offers so much bang for buck.