Chinese smartphone vendors Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo continued to be the main beneficiaries of industry growth as smartphone shipments rose 9 percent year over year in the first quarter, a new Gartner report revealed.
According to Gartner’s data, the triad of vendors managed to collectively corner nearly a quarter of the market share in the first quarter. That figure marked an increase of seven percentage points from the same period a year ago.
The three also captured the majority of sales growth, with Huawei increasing sales from 28.9 million in the first quarter 2016 to 34.2 million in the most recent period. Oppo nearly doubled its figures from 15.9 million a year ago to 30.9 million in the first quarter 2016, while Vivo’s sales leapt from 14 million in the first three months of 2016 to 25.8 million this year. Apple, too, grew its smartphone sales, but only slightly – the vendor hit 51.99 million compared to 51.63 million a year ago. And major rival Samsung saw its shipments drop to just 78.7 million from 81.2 million a year earlier.
Gartner indicated some of the Chinese vendors’ gains can be attributed to changing buyer preferences. Mobile users, the firm said, are “spending more to get a better phone,” making them perfect marks for Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo’s moderately priced devices.
“The top three Chinese smartphone manufacturers are driving sales with their competitively priced, high quality smartphones equipped with innovative features,” Gartner Research Director Anshul Gupta observed. “Furthermore, aggressive marketing and sales promotion have further helped these brands to take share from other brands in markets such as India, Indonesia, and Thailand.”
The result was a slip in market share for the big two – Samsung and Apple – which dropped from 23.3 and 14.8 percent market share, respectively, to 20.7 and 13.7 percent market share in the first quarter. Huawei hung on in third place with 9 percent market share, but Oppo was hot on its heels with 8.1 percent market share.
Filed Under: Devices
