The long-time leader in smartphone sales in China has been Korea’s Samsung Electronics. But a new sheriff rode into town in the second quarter. China’s Xiaomi sold nearly 15 million phones in its home country during the second quarter, compared with about 13.2 million for Samsung.

Xiaomi’s sales in China passed Apple Inc. (NYSE: AAPL) in the second quarter of 2013, when the Chinese upstart grabbed 5% of the country’s market, compared with 4.8% for Apple. At that time, Xiaomi had the sixth largest market share in China.

While high-end phones sell well among some consumers, an iPhone 5s at an unsubsidized price of more than $800 doesn’t have a chance to beat volume sales of a phone that sells for the equivalent of around $100 or less unsubsidized. China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL) has begun rolling out its 4G network, and the world’s largest mobile carrier has chosen to partner with domestic handset makers that sell smartphones that are affordable to more people.

Trailing Samsung to round out the second-quarter’s top five selling smartphone makers are Lenovo (around 13 million units), Yulong (12.7 million) and Huawei (11.9 million). Xiaomi’s Chinese market share totaled 14% in the second quarter, compared with 12% for Samsung, Lenovo and Yulong, and 11% for Huawei. Other vendors, of which there are dozens, including Apple, accounted for 39% of the market. In the first quarter of 2012, Samsung’s market share in China was 22%, according to research firm Canalys.

Xiaomi has already captured 5.1% of the global market, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, up from 1.8% a year ago, and now ranks fifth in global sales before it even rolls out products widely outside of China. Xiaomi could pass Lenovo, which claimed a second-quarter global market share of 5.4%, this quarter and Huawei (6.8% global share in the second quarter) by this time next year, making it the world’s third largest smartphone company behind only Apple and Samsung. Not bad for a company that is only four years old.

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