For the first time, the smartphone market is on par with the feature phone market in India, according to IDC. Overall, the India market reached 42.6 million units for a 9.1 percent year-on-year growth in Q3.
Continue reading “Smartphone and feature phone neck-to-neck in India”
Smartphone vendors shipped 355.2 million units in Q3, down six percent from the corresponding quarter last year, according to preliminary estimates by IDC. This is the fourth straight quarter of year-on-year decline.
Continue reading “Global smartphone shipment slides 6% in Q3”
Xiaomi and Samsung shipped 9.9 million smartphones each to India in Q2. Together they account for 60 percent of the total shipment that quarter, according to Canalys.
Continue reading “Samsung and Xiaomi neck-to-neck in India in Q2”
Smart speakers are picking up steam with the installed base expected to hit 100 million by the end of this year, according to Canalys. That’s 2.5 times the size of end 2017.
The long awaited Xiaomi listing made an impressive debut — dropping 2.9 percent on its opening day in Hong Kong. Priced at HK$17.00 at launch, the share price dipped to HK$16.50 in early trading.
Twenty-two days. It took relatively unknown smartphone maker OnePlus just that amount of time to sell one million units of OnePlus 6, its latest smartphone.
China smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi grew strongest as the market recovered in Q1, according to Gartner.
Continue reading “Huawei and Xiaomi lead smartphone growth in Q1”
The India smartphone market shipped 30 million units in Q1, the strongest Q1 performance ever and an 11-percent growth year on year, according to IDC.
Continue reading “India smartphone market posts strongest Q1 shipment”
Xiaomi, one of China’s biggest smartphone makers, has picked Hong Kong for its public listing.
In a quarter when the China smartphone market experienced it biggest ever decline, Xiaomi bucked the trend and grew 37 percent to 12 million units, according to Canalys.
Continue reading “Xiaomi bucks trend as China smartphone market dips in Q1”
Building on a momentum of 155 percent annual shipment growth in India last year, Xiaomi started Q1 at the top with a whopping nine million plus units to snag 31 percent market share, according to Canalys.
Continue reading “Xiaomi tops India smartphone market in Q1”
India has become the fastest growing smartphone market in the world with total shipment growing 14 percent to 124 million units in 2017, according to IDC.
Continue reading “India is fastest growing smartphone market in 2017”
Amazon and Google went head to head in the smart speaker market last year and the battle is expected to be more intense in the coming days with more players joining the fray.
The launch of the iPhone 8 and drop of prices of older models have helped Apple turn in a sterling quarter in China, with shipment rising 40 percent to 11 million units this Q3.
China-based vendors strengthened their grip in the India smartphone market, snaring 51.4 percent share of the smartphone shipment in Q1, according to IDC. They grew 16.9 percent sequentially and an impressive 142.6 percent over the same period last year.
In contrast, share of homegrown vendors dropped to 13.5 percent in the Q1 from 40.5 percent in the same quarter last year.
Overall, 27 million smartphones were shipped in Q1, a 14.8 percent growth over the same period last year. Unlike last year, shipment grew sequentially in the first quarter of 2017 by 4.7 percent recovering from demonetisation impact in Q4.
Continue reading “China vendors corner India smartphone market”
Huawei has taken top spot again in China’s smartphone market, edging past Oppo after two quarters of trailing in second place. According to Canalys, the Chinese smartphone giant, which launched the P10 and P10 Plus during MWC, shipped close to 21 million units to secure an 18 percent market share in Q1.
Despite strong annual growth of 55 percent, Oppo fell to second place with shipments of just under 20 million units. Third-placed Vivo had the lowest annual growth of the top three, capturing a 15 percent share with its shipment of 17 million units.
“China’s smartphone market continues to grow, with shipments increasing by over nine percent year on year this quarter. But there is a clear indication that the market is consolidating. The top three vendors are pulling away at the head of the market, accounting for more than 50 percent of shipments for the first time this quarter,” said Lucio Chen, Research Analyst of Canalys.
Everybody knows China is big but with nearly half a billion smartphones shipped last year, the market is massive — that’s one smartphone for every three person in the world’s most populous country.
According to Canalys estimates, China reached 476.5 million unit shipment, growing year on year at 11.4 percent, far exceeding the annual growth rate of 1.9 percent in 2015. China shipment reached 131.6 million units in Q4, which is the highest single quarter total in history, accounting for nearly a third of worldwide shipment.
Huawei took the top spot in the market with 76.2 million shipment, a small lead ahead of runner-up Oppo with 73.2 million units, followed by Vivo in third place at 63.2 million units.
While Samsung remained at the top, China smartphone makers occupied four of the top five positions to snare the lion’s share in India in Q4, according to Canalys.
Their extremely price-competitive devices pushed out India makers, who have been hit hard by the Indian government’s decision to demonetise the INR500 and INR1,000 (US$7.30 and US$14.65) banknotes.
“Local brands’ target customers typically buy in cash and from independent retailers. With the short-term liquidity crunch caused by demonetisation, these retailers are suffering a slowdown in consumer spending. Local vendors are losing out as retailers look to shift their stock to fast-moving, current devices. In Q4 2015, Micromax, Intex and Lava took second, third and fifth place, accounting for almost 30 percent of the market. One year on and all three vendors have dropped out of the top five, with their collective share falling to around 11 percent,” said Rushabh Doshi, Analyst of Canalys.
Continue reading “China phone makers dominate India market in Q4”
Many of us may know Xiaomi as a leading China handphone maker with its unique business model of selling in batches online.
In an interesting revelation to Reuters, Xiaomi Global Vice President declared that the company does not make money from selling handsets.
He is essentially saying that Xiaomi is giving away smartphones because the focus is on “recurring revenue streams over many years”. The company is looking at revenue from other products, such as smart-home device, software and services.
Move aside Huawei and Xiaomi because Oppo is now the leader in China’s smartphone market. And the number goes to vivo, another Chinese maker.
According to IDC, the China smartphone market grew 5.8 percent year-on-year and 3.6% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 with Oppo and vivo overtaking Huawei for the first time.
Oppo and vivo rose because the Chinese market has evolved beyond operator and online driven channels over to an offline structure that dovetails with Oppo and vivo’s strengths.
Smartphone sale hit a record 117.3 million in China in Q4. This represents an eight percent growth compared to the same period last year.
The phenomenal increase was partly driven by China’s annual singles day online shopping festival in November and Huawei’s strong shipments in the quarter. China’s Q4 growth boosted the calendar year 2015 growth to three percent.
“Xiaomi, Huawei and Apple are the top smartphone players in 2015. This is a stark contrast to the top players in 2013, which was Samsung, Lenovo and Coolpad – with Samsung clearly dominating other players. With operators reducing smartphone subsidy and given the volatility of consumers’ brand preference in the market, the smartphone scene has changed significantly since then,” said Tay Xiaohan, Senior Market Analyst of IDC Asia/Pacific’s Client Devices team.
Continue reading “China smartphone sale hit record high in Q4”
Huawei has dethroned Xiaomi as China’s top smart phone vendor in Q3. This is Huawei’s first time at the summit of China’s smartphone, according to Canalys.
The company powered its way to first place with 81 percent year-on-year shipment growth, extending its strong performance in the previous quarter. In contrast, Xiaomi’s shipments shrank year on year as it struggled to sustain its high growth.
“Huawei’s ascent to China’s smart phone throne is a remarkable feat, especially in the context of an increasingly cutthroat and maturing Chinese smart phone market. On the other hand, Xiaomi, with its worldwide target of 80 million smart phone shipments for 2015, is under tremendous pressure to keep growing as an international player as it is slowing down in its key home market,” said Jessie Ding, Research Analyst of Canalys.
Xiaomi continued its phenomenal growth to regained its crown as the largest smart phone vendor in China with 15.9 percent market share in Q2, according to Canalys.
One in three smartphones shipped were from Xiaomi or Huawei, which grew 48 percent quarter on quarter to snag 15.7 percent of the market. Apple fell to third place, followed by Samsung and Vivo.
“The China smart phone market continues to mature, remaining stagnant quarter on quarter. Competition among major brands has never been so intense. Huawei recorded the highest smart phone shipments in its history without compromising its product margin or profitability. Apple and Samsung have both increased their sales activities in the China market, expanding rapidly in channel coverage through flagship stores and small to medium size phone retailers respectively. Xiaomi is under immense pressure to maintain its top position in the quarters to come,” said Jingwen Wang, Analyst of Canalys.
The combined market share of Chinese brands fell to a two-year low on a global basis, as growth in China slowed to single digit in the first quarter of 2015, according to Canalys
Apple increased its market share in China, extending its lead over its Chinese rivals Xiaomi and Huawei. Major local vendors face the strongest headwinds in their home market since the smart phone boom began in 2011. Lenovo (including Motorola), Yulong and ZTE recorded their lowest shipment volume to the Chinese market for the last two years.
“Consumers are losing their appetite for ultra-low-cost devices, as expectations increase in line with spending power and, combined with rising market saturation, this is resulting in a major shift to devices that provide better user experience,” said Jingwen Wang, Analyst of Canalys.
Xiaomi’s popularity continues to grow as its Redmi Note 4G was sold out in under four minutes in Singapore.
It looks like consumers are really drawn by the affordability of the China-made smartphone, which costs S$229 each.
Five thousand units of the 5.5-inch phablets were snapped up by consumers keen on its 4G capabilities and 5MP (front) and 13MP (rear) cameras.
Q3 is a stunning quarter for smartphones as global shipment broke the 300 million unit barrier for the first time. This represented year-on-year growth of 23 percent, according to Canalys.
While Samsung and Apple remain the market leaders, the tussle for the third spot is heating up with was Xiaomi (six percent) followed closely by Lenovo and Huawei at five percent each.
“The global market is becoming more competitive, with vendors beyond Samsung and Apple enjoying growing success. A year ago, in Q3 2013, Samsung and Apple together accounted for 48 percent of worldwide smart phone shipments. While still impressive, in Q3 2014 this had slipped to 38 percent. This trend is likely to continue. It is down to the strong value proposition and increasing quality of products offered across all price points by competing vendors, most notably Chinese companies. In fact, six of the top 10 global vendors in Q3 are based in China,” said Chris Jones, Vice President and Principal Analyst of Canalys.
Continue reading “Global smartphone shipment soars past 300m mark in Q3”
Xiaomi introduced a slew of products in Beijing yesterday and one that really stood out was Mi Pad, it first tablet powered by the ultra-fast NVIDIA Tegra K1 mobile processor.
Sporting a 7.9-inch display with 2,048 x 1,536 resolution, this tablet comes with very long battery life — its 6700 mAh battery is good for up to 1300 hours of standby time or 11 hours of video streaming. It features 8MP rear and 5MP front cameras, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB or 64GB of built-in memory. If more storage is needed, there’s a microSD slot.
What’s amazing is under the hood. Powering the Mi Pad is the 192-core NVIDIA Tegra K1 mobile processor, which is based on the parallel processing GPU architecture found in the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
Continue reading “Xiaomi introduces NVIDIA Tegra K1-powered Mi Pad”
The Red Wave is spreading from China to the rest of the mobile world. Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo may not be the leading names that come to mind when it comes to handset vendors today but their influence is spreading. As it Xiaomi, which is taking East Asia by storm with sellouts every time it puts its phones for sale online.
ABI Research has reported that Chinese handset vendors will account for more than half of mobile handsets in 2015. Chinese vendors already accounted for 38 percent of mobile handset shipments in 2013 and the ongoing shift in growth to low cost handsets, especially smartphones, will increase their market share.
Many oChinese OEMs have focused almost exclusively on the huge Chinese market, with little activity beyond its borders, but this is set to change. Huawei (6th in worldwide market share for 2013) and ZTE (5th) have already made an impact on the world stage, but other Chinese handset OEMs like Lenovo — the Motorola acquisition is a clear statement of intent — and Xiaomi are set to join them.
Continue reading “China vendors to account for half of global handset sales next year”
Looks like interest in the Xiaomi Redmi smartphone is very high. Just six days after its debut sold out in Singapore, another batch of the smartphones was wiped out in just six minutes.
While irate netizens are upset that they missed out on the S$169 phone, those who successfully ordered last week received their new devices and the response has been good. Besides the good value (without contract too!), the China-made smartphone looks and feels great, and is packed with what most would expect, plus dual-SIM capability.
Xiaomi has done it again! In its initial foray into Singapore, all its Redmi phones were sold out online in eight minutes — after it went on sale at noon today.
At S$169, and without contract too, the phone is reasonably priced and a major draw. Needless to say, Facebook was filled with postings of those who were left disappointed. Some even questioned whether this was a marketing gimmick.
Let’s wait for the company for the official figures.
