Back in 2020, the online purchases of smartphones accounted for about 26 percent of all sales in the global market. This means that one in every four smartphones that were bought were purchased from online channels.

According to a Counterpoint Research report, the Coronavirus pandemic was a major factor that boosted the online sales in multiple countries. Key regions includes India that showcased the highest online share at 45 percent, along with UK with 39 percent and China arriving in at 34 percent. This implies that the share of online smartphone sales in 2020 rose by 6 percent over a year prior. For market size, it marked an increase of more than 10 percent.

Furthermore, this trend was also recorded in other regions as well, like the US and Europe. Emerging markets like Latin America also benefited from this trend. Notably, the US and India recorded highest ever online share in the second half of last year. While the market saw a sizeable growth in online sales, this trend is also expected to slow down for some time, with online sales in 2021 being similar to but slightly lower than last year.

Senior Analyst Sujeong Lim stated that “After the rapid growth in 2020, we expect 2021 to see some easing after the COVID-19 vaccination. However, it is expected to grow slightly every year from 2022 onwards, supported by growth in emerging markets and the middle-aged population becoming more accustomed to IT devices and internet use. But in the case of India, which currently has the highest online proportion, it may decrease to a certain level after 2022 due to the development of offline infrastructure such as multi-brand stores and large-scale retail stores. On the other hand, the future growth of the online market in SEA and MEA is noteworthy.”

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Oppo, the known Chinese smartphone manufacturer, is pushing forward with its plan for global expansion. The company is ramping up production of its products even while the Coronavirus fears have gripped the world.

According to Oppo, the brand is working on bringing 11 new global leading telecom operators to be part of its “5G Landing Project.” This is a new initiative from the company and aims to drive cooperation with global network operators. Furthermore, the field of implementation and its services will extend to the newer and faster bandwidth that is 5G networking.

A few of these new telecom partners include Orange, which is a French telecom brand, Vodafone from the UK, Telcel from Mexico and more. Oppo’s Global marketing president, Wu Qiang, recently stated that the company’s smartphone sales in the global market had finally surpassed its Chinese market in the second half of 2019. This is indicative of its growth in the overseas market.

As of right now, Oppo operates, sells and offers services across 40 different countries in the world. While the recent Coronavirus outbreak might have hampered the company’s operations in early 2020, Oppo is working on resuming production at full capacity to make up for it. Wu even stated that the company’s sales in the month of February 2020 saw a hard hit but has since recovered to about the normal state now.

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According to the senior executive, the more people stay at home to avoid infection, the more likely they are to use smartphones. This inadvertently also leads to a higher demand for phones in general. Although the market in China is still recovering at an increasing pace, the conditions are expected to improve further by March end.

Various analytical firms have forecasted a decline in the smartphone industry and markets, especially in China. Some have reported a near 5 percent drop in total shipments of smartphones, while the global market sees a 2 percent fall. Wu Qiand mentioned that in 2019, the smartphone market was relatively “flat” and only saw about 340 to 360 million smartphone units being shipped. This trend is expected to continue in 2020 as well.

Currently, Oppo’s production lines have restored its manufacturing capacity to up to 80 percent, which is number slowly on the rise. Similarly, even the suppliers the brand collaborates with have mostly recovered and started work again as well. Oppo’s domestic factories produce about 45 percent of all smartphones while the rest are manufactured from overseas sites like India, Indonesia, Algeria and Bangladesh.

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(Via)

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Huawei, which is currently under immense pressure due to the China-USA trade war, has something good to look forward to. The company is all set to beat the sales of Apple iPhones to take the second place in the global smartphone sales market.

While Huawei has beat Apple for the second spot in the global smartphones sales in previous quarters, this will be the first time that Huawei will beat Apple in full-year smartphone sales.

The Chinese company has already shipped more than 200 million units this year and has managed to greatly increase sales in China, Europe, and Africa. As per the report, it has already achieved more than 30 percent jump in global unit sales from the 153 million sold in 2017.

The most popular smartphone series from the company has been the Huawei P20-series, which primarily focuses on the camera performance, which features camera sensors co-developed with Germany’s Leica. The company’s head of consumer business said that it’s possible Huawei becomes the world’s top smartphone maker by the end of next year, pointing to strong growth in Europe and China.

According to the data from International Data Corp. (IDC), Huawei controlled 10.4 percent of the global smartphone market in 2017, behind Samsung Electronics’ 21.6 percent and Apple’s 14.7 percent. However, Huawei came in second behind Samsung for the first time in the April-June quarter and kept its place ahead of Apple in July-September as well.

Read More: Huawei Mate 20 Pro Commemorative Edition to debut in celebration of 200 million smartphone sales

However, it’s difficult for Huawei to hold on the spot for long given that the company is facing bans in key markets, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. A few countries and telecom companies are also shying from using Huawei communications equipment. This is bound to hurt the sales of the company’s phones in 2019.

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