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China smartphone brand review, 2021

Sean Lin, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei 0

China smartphone brand review

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The China-based top-4 smartphone brands - Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Honor - together shipped 509 million phones in 2021, among which 5G ones represented about 50%.
Abstract

Although Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo had seen their shipments quickly returned to growth with each of them enjoying more than 20% on-year increase in 2021 as a result of the US government's sanctions against Huawei, amid the intensified competition from Honor's rapid rise, the four leading brands are expected to struggle with a saturating China market and pressure from Apple in the high-end segment going into 2022.

Xiaomi's 2021 shipments soared 35% on year thanks primarily to its multi-brand strategy, which particularly accelerated its expansions in Europe and China. Oppo's 2021 shipments surged 28% from the prior year as its sub-brand Realme flourished in emerging markets and Huawei fading out from the China market boosted demand for its smartphones.

Vivo sustained a more serious impact from the component shortage and disruptions to its product planning so its annual shipment growth came to 20%. Honor quickly rolled out products across all segments within three quarters after the spin-off from Huawei as an independent brand while effectively resolving the chip shortage. Honor is expected to make a comeback to overseas markets in 2022 and deliver outstanding performance going forward.

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