Vivo & Oppo Replaces Lenovo & Xiaomi in Top 5 Global Smartphone Brands

Earlier today we have seen Apple experiencing the Y-o-Y drop in revenue for the first time in last 13 years. Even the number of shipments are drastically decreased comparing to the year ago’s quarter and last quarter. According to IDC, Apple remains as the second largest smartphone vendor while the Samsung still continues at No. 1 position. The interesting facts for the Q1 2016 can be found while talking about the Chines brands.

Samsung had shipped around 81.9 million devices in Q1 2016 which 0.6% lower than the Q1 2015 shipments. Apple is the major loser with 16.3% decrease in total shipments whereas Huawei had shipped 27.5 million handsets which is 58.4% more than the year-ago quarter’s shipments. Samsung along with Apple and Huawei occupies 48% of total shipments in Q1 2016.

Huawei, which is betting big on the international markets, is far behind any other Chinese brand and is stiffly positioned at third in the list of top global smartphone brands. The Y-o-Y growth in smartphone shipments in 2015 in China is just 2.5% while in 2013, it is at 62.5%. Though the smartphone penetration is slowed down, the average selling price of the smartphone in China is increased from $207 in 2013 to $257 in 2015.

Oppo and Vivo, which are considered as the premium brands in China, have replaced the Xiaomi and Lenovo in the top 5 global smartphone brands list. Xiaomi had missed its 2015 targeting even after adjusting the middle of the year. Even the Lenovo along Motorola haven’t seen improvements. Oppo had shipped 14.3 million handsets in Q1 2016 which is 153.2% higher than the year-ago quarter.

On the other, Vivo attained 123.8% growth and had shipped 14.3 million devices. Both Oppo and Vivo had a good presence in the offline market while Xiaomi devices are only limited to online stores. Even both the company are more concentrating over the offline presence in the fastest growing markets like India. Recently, Oppo and Vivo had also sponsored for the biggest cricket events WT20 world cup and IPL respectively.

In India, Oppo had sold 80% of its device via offline stores and is achieving 30% monthly growth starting from October last year. Selling through online stores and flash sales doesn’t increase the market share but provides a little buzz in social media. The offline sales and aggressive marketing are what helping the brands like Vivo and Oppo to achieve more sales even in the slowed down smartphone penetration.