Chinese Smartphone Players Continue To Grow In Oz Market

Recent reports from Taiwan-based component suppliers say that Chinese smartphone player Oppo have raised their smartphone shipment target for the first quarter of 2017 by almost 10% to 30-32 million.

The move comes with Oppo having just brought their refined R9S device to market on the back of a wide-ranging blitz on Australian customers in JB Hi-Fi, Woolworths and Officeworks outlets.

According to IDC numbers, Oppo accounted for 6.8 per cent of the global smartphone market in 2016.

After shipping 99.3 million units in 2016, reports now say Oppo aims to ramp up its shipments by over 20% in 2017.

The company's rapid rise has been enabled by four straight quarters of greater than 100% year-on-year growth.

However, they aren't the only Chinese player making big gains in the local market.

Huawei have also launched their own bold bid to displace Samsung as the premium provider of Android handsets with their new Mate 9.

Last year, Oppo briefly overtook Huawei at one point last year but the latter has now retaken the lead.

According to IDC, Huawei shipped a total of 125.9 million units last year.

Huawei's head of marketing Marc Di Giacomo argues that "the market is naturally moving to that desire for better cameras" – with Huawei jumping at the chance to fulfill that demand and grow their brand.

Meanwhile, Michael Tran (Executive Director at OPPO Mobile Australia) believes OPPO is in the perfect position to capitalise on consumers changing purchasing habits.

He notes that "premium doesn't have to mean pricey and OPPO smartphones are a perfect example of this. Not only do our phones have many of the features of flagship devices but also offer innovative new ones, such as rapid VOOC Flash Charge technology or Touch Access. When consumers get hands on with our devices, they are seeing this first-hand and we're quickly becoming a favourite for price savvy consumers."

"Moving forwards, we expect to see more consumers transition towards OPPO, as they see our devices as premium quality at an affordable price point. We have huge plans in store for 2017 and these results are nothing but encouraging for our growth in the Australian market," Tran says.

Source: Chinese Smartphone Players Continue To Grow In Oz Market