Asian brands absolutely dominate the world’s smartphone sales

Photo credit: Jens Schott Knudsen.

The smartphone may have been invented in the West, but it’s being perfected in Asia if the latest sales numbers are anything to go by. Market research firm IC Insights recently released its smartphone sales analysis for the first quarter of 2016, and the results are very telling.

In the chart below, you can see the top 12 global smartphone brands by Q1 shipments, according to IC Insights. The Asian companies are highlighted in gold. Perhaps you’ll notice a pattern:

Yes, Apple is the lone Western brand to crack the global smartphone top 12. And while the Cupertino-based company still boasts numbers that dwarf most of the other companies on the list, it’s worth pointing out that Apple’s sales numbers have actually been shrinking even as Asian brands like Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Micromax experience dramatic growth.

Drilling down, it’s also quite obvious that Chinese smartphone brands are on the rise. While no single Chinese brand shipped numbers close to those of Apple or Samsung, collectively the Chinese smartphone brands shipped more than 111 million smartphones in Q1, far outpacing brands from any other country. And with the exceptions of Lenovo and TCL, all of China’s smartphone brands are projected to grow year-on-year, according to IC Insights’ data.

India’s Micromax’s inclusion on the list is also noteworthy. Although the company only barely snuck into the number 12 spot, it is projected to grow year-on-year at a faster rate (74 percent) than any of the other brands on IC Insights’ list.