In analytical reports, there is usually a lot of attention paid to the largest smartphone manufacturers, but not a word about those who are not so successful as to get into the top 10 or even top 5. However, we know that among our readers there are quite a few fans of Meizu, ASUS, Sony, Nokia and other small manufacturers. Therefore, retelling the huge Credit Suisse report on the state of the smartphone market, we decided to focus not only on Apple, Samsung and the largest Chinese manufacturers, but also pay attention to the “lagging behind”.

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Let’s start with Chinese manufacturers. Among them, it is worth highlighting Transsion, which sold 82.4 million smartphones last year (+ 35% by 2020); that’s more than Huawei and Honor combined. However, it did not start 2022 very successfully: 17.75 million smartphones in the first quarter (-11%). But Lenovo / Motorola are doing well: in January-March 2022, they sold 11.48 million smartphones (+4%), and for the whole of 2021 – 51.2 million (+15% by 2020). TCL can also be attributed to fairly large manufacturers. Last year, it sold 16.4 million smartphones (+27%), in the first quarter of this year – 3.87 million (-1%)). Its rapid growth is due to the departure of LG and Vsmart from the smartphone market; cheap smartphones in the US are now sold mainly by TCL.

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HMD/Nokia also shows rapid growth. Last year it sold 10.5 million smartphones (+28%), at the beginning of this year – 2.42 million (+29%). This growth is most likely due to problems with Huawei / Honor, buyers of their budget in Europe are switching to Nokia. Last year was also successful for ZTE: 8.6 million smartphones (+37%). But 2022 started poorly: only 1.68 million smartphones in three months (-11%). The next line, despite a rapid fall, was held by Wiko (2.3 million smartphones last year (-24%), 390 thousand at the beginning of 2022 (-25%)). However, Hisense is already very close: last year it sold 2.2 million smartphones (+16%), at the beginning of this year – 410 thousand (-24%).

Meizu again sold less than a million smartphones in a year – about the same as Coolpad and Gionee

Other Chinese manufacturers are very difficult to distinguish on the scale of the map. Among them, unfortunately, is Meizu: last year it sold only 800 thousand smartphones (+14%), in the first quarter of 2022 – 60 thousand (-67%). The once large company Coolpad continues its decline: sales in 2021 amounted to 500 thousand units (-54%), at the beginning of 2022 – 50 thousand units (-69%). Gionee is somewhere nearby: last year it sold 400 thousand smartphones (+33%), at the beginning of this year – 10 thousand (-95%). About 10 thousand smartphones per quarter are sold by LeEco, K-Touch and Haier; these are basically ultra-budget devices based on Spreadtrum processors, which are fakes of iPhone or Huawei.

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Let’s move on to manufacturers from other countries. In addition to Samsung and Apple, the largest player there is Kyocera, which sold 3.6 million smartphones last year (+44%), and at the beginning of 2022 – 920 thousand devices (-1%). Next comes Sony, whose sales last year amounted to 3.1 million units (+7%), and at the beginning of this year – 610 thousand units (+39%). Another Japanese manufacturer, FCNT (ex-Fujitsu), sold 2.6 million smartphones last year (-7%), and in January-March this year – 1.01 million (+29%). Oddly enough, Sharp was included in the Others category in the report, although it often outperforms all its Japanese competitors in reports on the Japanese market.

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Last year was also unsuccessful for ASUS, which sold only 700,000 smartphones (-50%); at the beginning of this year, sales amounted to 140 thousand units (+40%). A similar level is demonstrated by the Indian Micromax: 700 thousand last year (+75%), 120 thousand in January-March of this (-43%). Rapid growth has allowed it to once again become India’s largest smartphone brand, overtaking Lava, which sold just 600,000 smartphones last year (-33%). However, the beginning of 2022 was once again more successful for Lava: 170,000 units (-6%). Sales of Microsoft smartphones (we are talking about the Surface Duo series) last year amounted to 60 thousand units (-69%), HTC smartphones (mainly the Desire series) – 130 thousand units (-48%).

© Ilya Nerybov. mobile phone

According to IF/News