After recovering from the COVID-19 dip, the China Smartphone market is on the rise. The latest report by Counterpoint shows that Vivo has overhauled OPPO to become the largest smartphone brand in China.

Earlier in March, a similar report showed that OPPO became the No.1 Smartphone brand for the first time in January 2021. Now, Vivo has taken its turn to jump ahead of OPPO thanks to budget Vivo Y and S models.

That is, as of March 28, 2021(Week 13), Vivo holds the top spot with a market share of 24% as opposed to OPPO‘s 21% and Huawei‘s 15%. Comparing with the last report, we can see that Vivo has nearly grown its market share by 4% since January.

Do note that here Vivo also includes its sub-brand iQOO while OPPO’s share doesn’t include realme and OnePlus. Similarly, the share of Huawei, which led the smartphone market in 2021, doesn’t include its ex-sister HONOR.

Huawei’s rivals have been seeking to steal the legend’s lost market share for a while and it is clearly evident in the latest report. Anyway, the report says that 76% of Vivo’s sales in February 2021 accounts 5G portfolio.

This is a significant bump up from 0.5% in 2019 when it started churning out 5G devices like Vivo Nex 3. Also, Vivo is said to be positioning its product lineup very well with NEX, X, S, Y series. The first two are flagship with camera upgrades(like ZEISS tie-up) while the latter two are more affordable devices.

Not to mention the iQOO has been on a ride with more focus on the online market. OPPO, on the other hand, has flagship Reno and mid-range A devices. Let’s wait and see if Vivo is able to hold the spot with more to come in the next Quarter.

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With HUAWEI’s decline, fellow Chinese OEMs have been trying their best to fill the void left by the once world’s largest smartphone maker. In fact, OPPO succeeded to become China’s largest smartphone brand for the first time since its inception in January 2021.

According to Counterpoint Research, OPPO’s market share in China stood at 21% in January 2021. The company was closely followed by vivo at 20%. Whereas, other top brands like HUAWEI, Apple, and Xiaomi had a 16% market share each.

As per Counterpoint Research’s Market Pulse Service, sales of OPPO smartphones grew 33% MoM (month-on-month) and 26% YoY (year-on-year) in January 2021. The OEM was also the largest 5G smartphone brand in the sub-$600 segment and second-largest as a whole.

OPPO was able to pull this because of HUAWEI’s steady decline. Both HUAWEI and HONOR have been continuously losing their market share due to the shortage of 5G smartphone components on account of the US sanctions.

OPPO’s success comes from the strong sales of the OPPO Reno5 series, which includes OPPO Reno5, OPPO Reno5 Pro, and OPPO Reno5 Pro+. The latest-gen Reno series was introduced at 10% cheaper, compared to its predecessor.

That’s not all, the OPPO A72 5G has been the best-selling 5G smartphone in its price segment since November 2020. Nearly one-third of the 5G handsets sold in China cost less than $300. Both the OPPO Reno and A series helped the company gain market share from HUAWEI’s nova and Enjoy series. 

More than 65% of the handset sold in China in Q4 2020 were 5G-enabled. But HUAWEI and HONOR could not meet the demand, As a result, distributors in the country have now turned towards brands like OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi. The former two now rule the offline channels while the latter is seeing growth across online channels.

Ever since HUAWEI sold HONOR, its market share even shrank further. The company is now only focused on selling premium phones with higher margins.

HUAWEI had more than 10,000 retail and experience stores across its home country at its peak. But that number has been now dwindling since Q4 2020. Competitors are expected to benefit more from the company’s further decline in 2021.

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