According to market research company Canalys, China’s smartphone vendors now control 52 percent of the global market. This was partly due to the strong growth of brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo. OPPO even dominated with its competitors, Samsung’s Korean brand, in five main markets in Southeast Asia. In the third quarter of this year, the world smartphone market was not encouraging, with total shipments worldwide dropping 7 percent to 348.9 million units compared to the same period last year which reached 375.9 million units. This is also the third decline in a row. “The Chinese market shows no increase in terms of smartphone sales, and 14 of the top 20 brands in China, sales dropped in the third quarter of this year,” said Mo Jia, analyst at Catalys. According to him, the condition continues to provide tremendous pressure for vendors amid increasing components and labour costs in China. Chinese vendors are more focused than ever on expansion abroad, such as in South Asia, Africa, Eastern and Central Europe. Canalys reported that Samsung still controlled the world’s smartphone market in the third quarter of 2018, with total shipments of 71.3 million units (20.4 percent), followed by Huawei – which topped Apple – with 51.9 million units (14.9 percent), Apple sits in third place with 46.9 million units (13.4 percent). Xiaomi occupies the fourth position with total shipments of 33.4 million units representing 9.6 percent market share, then OPPO below that with 31.0 million units or 8.9 percent.
