The new Mi5. Xiaomi needs this and the larger Mi Note to succeed in order to grow in line with China’s demand for pricier phones. In addition, Xiaomi has been teasing an even larger phone that may be called Max, taking it even further upmarket.
Two relatively unknown Chinese phone brands are now among the top five smartphone markers in terms of global shipments, says a new report from IDC.
The entrance of Oppo and Vivo has pushed the well-known and well-funded Xiaomi out of the top five. That adds to Xiaomi’s woes as it battles falling sales in an increasingly fierce market for cheap and mid-range smartphones. Xiaomi’s tribulations are compounded by China’s phone-savvy consumers trading up to pricier models – particularly Apple’s iPhone and those from Huawei.
This is the new global top 5 in the first three months of the year:
- Samsung – 81.9 million smartphone shipments
- Apple – 51.2 million smartphone shipments
- Huawei – 27.5 million smartphone shipments
- Oppo – 18.5 million smartphone shipments
- Vivo – 14.3 million smartphone shipments
The X6S Plus is one of Vivo’s larger models – replete with iPhone-esque rose gold. Photo credit: Vivo.
Xiaomi may take issue with IDC’s numbers. An analyst at Strategy Analytics last week said that Xiaomi sold 14.8 million of its phones from January to March. The Beijing-based company has not released figures of its own.
Lenovo has also been kung-fu kicked off the leaderboard.
Hyper growth is over
IDC says a total of 334.9 million smartphones were shipped to stores in Q1 2016. That’s up by a hair’s breadth from 334.3 million units in Q1 2015. That’s the smallest year-over-year growth on record, states the research company. The fact that nearly every adult in China has already traded in his or her flip phone for a smartphone means that the nation’s years of hyper growth are gone forever, replaced by much slower growth.
Photo credit: Jens Schott Knudsen.
“Outside of China, many of these brands are virtually unknown and the ability of these rapidly growing Chinese vendors to gain entry into mature markets such as the United States and Western Europe will be essential if they have aspirations of catching Apple or Samsung at the top,” said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team.
Oppo and Vivo are already active in fast-growing markets like India and across Southeast Asia.
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