Vivo‘s VP and president of its Chinese operations Liu Hong has revealed that Vivo sales since March this year has increased by more than 10% when compared to the same period last year. The VP in a recent interview equally revealed that with the Coronavirus epidemic under control, more than 80% of its workforce has returned to work and that has had a tremendous effect on its production lines with over 90% increase in output. 

This should be similar to what other Chinese tech companies are experiencing which is cheering news considering that only a couple of weeks back, the industry was staring at a total collapse in production due to the government’s social isolation polity and directive for citizens to stay at home.

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However, what should interest you most about Liu’s interview should be the aspect where he spoke about 5G phones. The Vivo exec hinted that the company’s 5G phone production capacity each day will surpass 100,000 units by mid-March which is already upon us. More interesting, he also forecasted that the prices of 5G phones will drop to around 1,500 yuan ($214) by the fourth quarter (4Q 2020) or the end of this year.

Vivo has already released three 5G phones this year- the Vivo Z6, iQOO 3 and Vivo NEX 3S. The VP equally stated that the consumer demand for 5G mobile phones exceeded expectations, and the sales of these products were significantly higher than expected. Although affected by the epidemic, since March, sales of Vivo mobile phones have increased by more than 10% compared with the same period last year. That should be due to 5G phones. Liu Hong also revealed that Vivo is accelerating the switch from 4G to 5G. At present, there is no pressure on 4G inventory in the price segment above 2,000 yuan and that is because more persons prefer to go for 5G models even when it is far more expensive than the 4G version. That is an indication of the rapid change in the market forces.

Vivo was one of the top-selling OEMs in the 5G segment in Q4 2019. The company shipped a reasonable among grabbing 13.7% share of the market. It ranked second with Huawei at the first spot with 20.2% market share. Thus, with an increase in its production capacity and the release of more 5G models within the year, Vivo is looking to maintain its top position. But then, when more 5G phones get released, the consumers stand to gain more as it will bring down the prices of older models enabling us to lay our hands on cheaper 5G phones early.

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