The smartphone shipments in the Netherlands, Demark, and Finland have shown signs of positive growth quarter on quarter in the fourth and final quarter of last year. The primary reason for the growth was the launch of Apple’s iPhone 12 series.

According to a CounterPoint Research report, that the rebound arrived despite a few regions still remaining under partial lockdown. Furthermore, Netherlands recorded the highest degree of recovery with a 19 percent quarter on quarter rise in smartphone shipments, over the other regions, followed by Finland and Denmark with 14 percent and 10 percent QoQ growth respectively. Notably, 5G enabled handset’s shipments also grew by 50 percent during this time in all three nations.

This was higher than the overall European average. Meanwhile, the iPhone 12 lineup was the most popular 5G device in these regions, which is also what led to the positive growth in Q4 of 2020. Similarly, the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Note 20 lineup also performed well in the countries, while the mid tier segment had the OnePlus Nord emerged as the highest selling 5G Android device in Finland and Denmark.

Interestingly, popular Chinese brands also played a role in the markets. With Oppo being the third largest brand in the Dutch market, recording great performance thanks to its Reno 4 series. This also marked a 123 percent year on year growth of the brand. Samsung was also one of the major players in the mid range segments, with its A series seeing strong sales, but Apple still led the 5G handset market overall.

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OnePlus saw strong growth in Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands in the third quarter of this year. This growth arrived as its smartphone shipments more than doubled thanks to its upper mid range handset offerings.

The Chinese smartphone maker recorded its highest ever shipments in a quarter, which was backed by its smartphone range within the 250 to 399 US Dollars price. The company saw great success through this range, which was mostly accredited to the OnePlus Nord. According to a CounterointResearch report, the company saw the fastest growth in Finland during Q3 2020, noting a 209 percent sequential growth. Notably, it was the only brand apart from Xiaomi to also record positive growth within the declining market. This even had the company become the top 5G smartphone brand in terms of units in the region with a 53 percent market share, beating Samsung with its 35 percent market share.

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In Denmark, the company was again one of the fastest growing OEM, marking another doubling growth over the previous quarter. However, Samsung managed to still stay ahead of the Chinese brand in this market with a 38 percent market share for Android smartphones compared to the 25 percent market share of OnePlus. The Nord helped make the brand the second largest 5G smartphone brand in Q3 2020 in the region.

Arriving to the Netherlands, the positive trend continues as the company recorded strong growth in another declining market. Here, OnePlus marked an impressive 412 percent annual growth in Q3 2020 despite the Dutch market falling by 8 percent. The region is dominated by the South Korean tech giant with a 52 percent market share, while Oppo and Apple arrived second and third respectively. Despite not making the top 3 spots, the Nord still managed to become the third most popular smartphone in the region, accounting for 11 percent of the total shipments during this period. Looking at these results, we can only expect the brand to grow further in all of the three regions.

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UPDATE:

In response to the news about OnePlus’ layoffs in Europe, the company clarified that it was a strategic restructuring move limited to its European division. In an official forum post, Tuomas L., head of OnePlus’ Strategy in Europe, revealed that around 20 employees were affected by this restructuring in Germany, France, and the UK.

You can read the forum post here. An excerpt from the post has been added below.

“As part of our strategy, we are looking to capitalize on opportunities in the Nordic region and Benelux by hiring for new positions, relocating some existing European staff and further enhancing our capabilities in these strategic markets. At the same time, we are making organizational changes in some existing markets, specifically Germany, France and the UK.”

“We are doing everything we can to support the approximately 20 total employees in these three markets who will be affected by this restructuring, including offering redundancy packages per local regulations. We highly value the contributions of these staff members and will do our best to ensure a smooth transition through this process.”

OnePlus just launched the OnePlus 8 series, consisting of OnePlus 8 Pro, the company’s most ambitious smartphone till date. However, the same cannot be said for its employees. According to a report by Engadget, the Chinese smartphone company has reportedly laid off several workers in Europe.

It is not the first time OnePlus has downsized in Europe. Last year, staffs in Spain and Italy had to face the same and as of now, the company has not a single worker in those regions.

The current lay-off includes removing up to 80% of employees (around 20 employees) in the regional offices of France, Germany, and the UK. To this, OnePlus responded that it is carrying out some strategic restructuring in Europe and even confirmed to be hiring in the region.

According to a source close to the matter, the teams in Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Belgium seem to be unaffected. The company considers these markets to have more potential and thus even asked some of its employees to relocate to Helsinki, which is expected to replace London as OnePlus’ European headquarters.

The primary reason for OnePlus to make such decisions lies in its new philosophy. As the company raced towards premium 5G smartphones, carriers like O2 and EE discontinued their partnerships with the brand in the UK. The new OnePlus 8 series is only available on 3 in the region.

As per Ben Wood, Chief Analyst at CCS Insight, ‘OnePlus has fallen into the trap of over-promising and under-delivering’. The company is struggling hard to maintain relationships with carriers in Europe and has even turned back on core fans by stepping into the premium range.

Anyway, before the recent layoff, OnePlus had over 2,000 employees worldwide. The current tally of workes is unknown at the moment.

UP NEXT: OnePlus rumoured to release ODM orders, including 4G & 5G phones this year

(Source)

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Danish authorities have ousted two Huawei Staff members from the country due to some work permit issue. As per the Copenhagen Police, the two workers were not holding appropriate documents. Furthermore, the documents were not complying with the country’s laws said police. The authorities have termed the investigation at several locations in the city as a “routine” check.

Usually, Danish authorities perform routine checks in all the areas where a high number of foreigners reside.  In a similar ‘routine check’ at the Chinese company’s Copenhagen headquarters, city police charged four employees working without a proper work permit. Later, the police dropped charges from two employees and expelled remaining employees from the country. Although authorities have not published more details like the nationality of workers, names, etc citing police policies.

Huawei responded to the expulsion and said that “These visa checks are routine, and we are co-operating with the authorities.”

Although, Police denied the expulsion of Huawei employees’ connection with espionage concerns.

However, on the other hand, its neighbouring country Norway’s intelligence service is terming it as related to the ongoing scrutiny issue over Huawei and Chinese government ties. While representing national risk assessment report 2019, head of Norway’s domestic intelligence unit, Benedicte Bjornland said, “One has to be attentive about Huawei as an actor and the close connections between a commercial actor like Huawei and the Chinese regime.”

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Recently, Huawei is under fire due to alleged close ties with the Chinese Government. The company is going through allegations of spying activities by Chinese officials throughout the world. Especially, the US has banned Huawei and also asked its allies to cut down the supplies from the Chinese Company. In response, Australia, New Zealand and other countries have also banned Huawei from participating in the 5G rollout plans.

As of now, there’s no evidence of Denmark’s expulsion of two Huawei employees related to the espionage concerns.

(Source)

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