CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Wednesday, February 24, 2021 | 15 BUSINESSFOCUS

By MA SI tem ColorOS close to 400 million on [email protected] a global scale, Chen said. Oppo is not alone. Smartphone The global smartphone market is vendors including Realme, Vivo and likely to see a shake­up and rise in Smartphone firms see clear Xiaomi are intensifying efforts to 2021 as consumers get ready to grab a bigger share in the global embrace 5G­powered smartphones smartphone market amid Huawei’s and Huawei Technologies Co con­ overseas challenges. tinues its struggle with some over­ Li Bingzhong, CEO of Realme, a seas restrictions, leaving space for shift on pent­up demand fast­growing Chinese smartphone competitors, said experts and com­ brand, said, “We will open more pany executives. than 100 offline stores in India and The comments came after global Southeast Asia this year as part of smartphone shipments rebounded Market for handheld devices is on the verge of 5G­propelled boom amid COVID our broader plan to open more than in the fourth quarter of 2020 and a 1,000 stores globally.” clear shift is taking place among Launched in 2018, Realme chiefly leading global smartphone vendors. relies on its popularity in e­com­ Xiang Ligang, director­general of merce sales channels and its reso­ the Information Consumption Alli­ nance with young consumers. ance, a telecom industry associa­ Li said Realme had entered just tion, said the global smartphone 35 markets at the start of 2020, but sector has been relatively stable for the figure jumped to 61 by year­end the past two to three years as the as the company fully leveraged its market was saturated and consum­ advantages in e­commerce and oth­ ers less frequently upgraded their er marketing resources. devices. Market positions of top The recovery of the global smart­ smartphone vendors remained phone market from the COVID­19 barely unchanged. impact is also expected to fuel com­ But starting from the second half petition. In the fourth quarter, the of 2020, competition in the interna­ world smartphone sector grew 4.3 tional smartphone arena has inten­ percent year­on­year in shipments, sified, and the market became more data from IDC show. dynamic after consumer enthusi­ Nabila Popal, research director asm for 5G smartphones was ignit­ with IDC’s worldwide mobile device ed, Xiang said. trackers, said: “There are a lot of ele­ “This year is likely to see a greater ments at play that are fueling the shift in the global smartphone mar­ smartphone market recovery — ket, with uncertainties revolving pent­up demand, continued supply around how the United States will push on 5G, aggressive promotions further deal with Huawei and how and the popularity of low to mid­ other smartphone vendors grab the priced phones. opportunity to grow their presence,” “Vendors also seem to be better he added. prepared for the second lockdown, Such changes were already ensuring they have the right chan­ reflected in the latest rankings of nel set up ready to fulfill orders and global smartphone vendors. In the reach the end consumer. Lock­ fourth quarter, Apple overtook Sam­ downs also have people spending sung as the largest smartphone ven­ less on areas like leisure, travel and dor with a record performance. By dining out — and smartphones are comparison, in the third quarter benefiting from this. In addition to Apple was barely ranked fourth glo­ all these factors, the fast recovery bally. and resilience of the smartphone Specifically, from October to Customers shop for Oppo phones at a store in Shanghai on Feb 7. WANG GANG / FOR CHINA DAILY supply chain also has to be given December, Apple delivered 90.1 mil­ some credit.” lion smartphones driven by the suc­ IDC added that the recovery of cess of the iPhone 12 series. This both the smartphone market and its marked the highest shipment vol­ supply chain has been truly ume from a vendor in a single quar­ impressive and the year­end growth ter and resulted in a 23.4 percent is testament to how far the industry market share and 22.2 percent year­ has come and highlights the impor­ on­year growth, said market tance of smartphones in everyday research company International life. Data Corp. Market research company Gart­ During the same period, Xiaomi ner Inc forecast that worldwide Corp maintained its third spot with sales of smartphones will total 1.5 a 32 percent year­on­year surge in billion units in 2021, an 11.4 percent smartphone shipments. Oppo growth year­over­year. climbed to fourth place with a 10.7 Anshul Gupta, senior research percent year­on­year growth, IDC director at Gartner, said: “In 2020, added. consumers reduced spending on They are eating into Huawei’s smartphones but availability of new market share, which fell to fifth products will see users drive signifi­ place globally with a 42 percent cant uptick in demand in 2021. The year­on­year decline in shipments. combination of delayed smart­ In comparison, two quarters ago, phone replacements and the availa­ Huawei was the largest smartphone Left: Customers try Huawei Mate 40 series phones at a store in Shanghai on Oct 23. ZHAI HUIYONG / FOR CHINA DAILY bility of lower end 5G smartphones vendor in the world. Right: People shop for Xiaomi products at a store in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Dec 24. YAN BO / FOR CHINA DAILY are poised to increase smartphone Separate research from Canalys sales in 2021.” revealed an even grimmer picture Gupta added that Gartner ana­ for Huawei. From October to months. For this reason, Honor is it also made savvy moves behind the the high­end smartphone segment lysts expect smartphone sales in December, the Chinese tech compa­ 400 not expected to reclaim substantial scenes to propel its sales and profit­ in 2021, after recording an impress­ 2021 to be close to 2019 levels. ny came in sixth place, marking the million market share in the near term,” she ability.” ive growth last year. Fu Liang, an independent ana­ first time in six years that it fell out­ approximate number of users added. Thielke said the omission of a Chen said Oppo saw a satisfying lyst who has been following the tel­ side the global top five smartphone using Oppo’s ColorOS system Sensing the market void resulting power plug from the iPhone retail growth in 2020 despite headwinds ecom sector for more than a vendors. from Huawei’s challenges, interna­ box, which reduces weight and size, such as the challenges from the pan­ decade, said that this year the glob­ Amber Liu, research analyst at tional peers Apple and Samsung, as is making logistics significantly demic. al smartphone market will have Canalys, said, “Huawei dramatically well as domestic brands Oppo, Vivo more efficient amid the ongoing In other parts of Asia, Oppo main­ more vitality. receded in most markets as a result market. It needs to extend its prod­ and Xiaomi, are working hard to high cost of airfreight due to the tained its leading position in the “It will be a year of high impor­ of US sanctions.” uct range to compare to the original increase their appeal among con­ COVID­19 pandemic. And it also smartphone market. In India, as the tance to determine vendors’ posi­ Liu pointed to Huawei’s decision breadth of Huawei. sumers. implemented channel­centric company expanded local sales, its tion in the 5G era. As Huawei to divest its Honor device brand. “And most importantly, it needs to Apple’s iPhone 12, for instance, growth initiatives to target small brand preference among local con­ recedes, consumers and channels Honor is not bound by the same reenter channels that are already proved to be a big hit. Vincent Thiel­ and medium­sized business cus­ sumers rose by 33 percent. are exposed to more choices, while restrictions and component sup­ signing multiyear deals with com­ ke, analyst at Canalys, said: “Apple is tomers, which bolstered demand for In Western Europe and Japan, newer or smaller brands have more plies are resuming. But Honor has a petitors. For example, in critical better positioned than its competi­ its entire range of iPhones. Oppo’s shipments of smartphones chances to stand out. The market colossal challenge ahead. It needs to channels like European network tors on 5G, being heavily skewed Chen Mingyong, CEO of Oppo, more than doubled. All these expan­ will be ready to embrace a long peri­ redefine the brand to appeal to both operators, the vendor onboarding toward developed markets and also said in a New Year message that sions have helped Oppo grow the od of shake­up in the coming year,” premium customers and the mass process can take more than six mobile operator sales channels. But it was eyeing a bigger presence in number of users of its operating sys­ Fu said.

As 5G becomes a common feature for new smartphones, these vendors Mobile sector senses big growth opportunities in China will double down investments in their flagship and premium portfo­ By MA SI its other products also contributed a coupled with widely available trade­ Nicole Peng, vice­president of Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, which lios focusing on product breadth lot, but he also highlighted that the in plans and interest­free install­ mobility at Canalys, said: “It is pos­ were ranked third to fifth in the Chi­ and premium components, Peng Sun Juanjuan, a white­collar iPhone 12 was crucial in fueling ments with major banks, drove sibly Huawei’s toughest time as it is nese smartphone market, are fight­ added. worker in Shanghai, had been using phone upgrades. Apple’s stellar performance.” restrained in even serving its home ing to win over Huawei’s market But she also said Honor, which an iPhone X for more than three “China had a record number of It is also worth noting that Apple’s market. Huawei’s sell­in shipments share. Oppo’s growth in the fourth was sold by Huawei in November, is years before buying an iPhone 12 upgraders during the quarter, the launch of the iPhone 12 series in Chi­ shrunk by nearly half sequentially, quarter was mainly supported by its a player that shouldn’t be ignored in immediately after Apple Inc most we’ve ever seen in a quarter. I na coincides with the struggles of despite huge demand for Huawei A32 and Reno5 series. The A32 mod­ China this year, as the vendor has unveiled its first smartphones with think probably some portion of this Huawei Technologies Co, a rival in devices, as the vendor is unable to el recorded nearly 4 million ship­ inherited most of Huawei’s 5G connectivity in October. was that people probably delayed the high­end segment, which was fulfill this demand in the foreseea­ ments, while the Reno5 series was strengths and aims to win over Hua­ “I have been waiting for Apple’s purchasing in the previous quarter facing severe shortages of key com­ ble future.” able to penetrate the offline chan­ wei’s loyal customers. 5G smartphone for a long time. as rumors started appearing about ponents for smartphones due to the Will Wong, research manager nel’s $350­$450 segment with its Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said When the iPhone 12 was unveiled, I an iPhone,” Cook said. US government’s restrictions on its for client devices at International more reasonable pricing and eye­ the company will expand its pres­ decided to buy one immediately. I At the same time, a well­estab­ supply chain. Data Corp Asia­Pacific, said in a catching design. This helped Oppo ence in the high­end smartphone love the green color so much,” Sun lished 5G network in China and In the fourth quarter, Apple was research note that Huawei faced reach top spot in December, IDC market this year after it inked part­ said. local consumers’ mounting enthusi­ the second largest smartphone ven­ supply shortages in three series said. nerships with major chip suppliers Consumers like Sun are pushing asm about 5G handsets also contrib­ dor in China. It reported its best per­ due to the continued impact from These vendors are also scram­ such as Intel, Micron and Qual­ sales of Apple to new highs in China. uted to iPhone 12 sales, he added. formance in the nation in recent the trade bans — with its Mate 40 bling to win over Huawei’s offline comm to reconstruct supply The United States tech giant raked Amber Liu, research analyst at years, shipping more than 15.3 mil­ series in the fourth quarter ship­ channel partners across the country, chains. in its highest ever revenue in China Canalys, said: “Apple had a great lion units in the October­December ping fewer than the Mate 30 series including small rural peers, backed Zhao said Honor now has about in the fourth quarter, driven by the year in China where full year ship­ period, with an 18 percent market by more than 60 percent com­ by huge investments in store expan­ 8,000 employees, with over 50 per­ popularity of its iPhone 12 series. ments finally returned to the 2018 share, up from 15 percent from a pared to the fourth quarter of sion and marketing support. cent of them being research and Apple said its China revenue level, driven by both iPhone 11 and year earlier, said Canalys. 2019. “These commitments brought development staff. came in at $21.31 billion in the three iPhone 12 models. Apple recorded Though Huawei maintained its Other vendors are eyeing this immediate results, and market “With five R&D centers and over months ended Dec 26, up 57 percent its highest quarterly shipments in top spot in China, its local smart­ opportunity. IDC said that from share improved within mere 100 innovation labs worldwide, from a year earlier. China since the fourth quarter of phone shipments declined by 44 October to December, almost all of months. This year will clearly be a Honor is committed to developing Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed 2015 when the iPhone 6S was percent year­on­year in the quarter, the top five vendors recorded favor­ year of aggressive expansion for powerful technology that empowers the strong performance to “more launched. Aggressive online promo­ with its local market share shrink­ able growth — with the exception of Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi,” Peng from people to become a better version of than an iPhone story”, adding that tions across e­commerce players, ing to 22 percent. Huawei. Canalys said. themselves,” he said.