Oppo and Vivo vault ahead in China’s smartphone market

Oppo Electronics has overtaken Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, to become the leading smartphone brand in mainland China in the quarter to September.

Data released on Tuesday by market research firm Counterpoint Technology showed that Oppo cornered a 16.6 per cent share of total smartphone shipments on the mainland in the third quarter, up from 9.9 per cent in the same period last year.

Vivo was close behind with a 16.2 per cent share, compared with 8.2 per cent previously.

Both Oppo and Vivo are subsidiaries of privately held BBK Electronics Corp, which is headquartered in the city of Dongguan in Guangdong province. BBK also owns another Chinese smartphone brand, OnePlus.

“Shipments for Oppo’s smartphones grew 82 per cent year on year while Vivo recorded the highest growth in China during the quarter as demand rose 114 per cent,” Counterpoint research director James Yan said in a report.

He said Oppo and Vivo now controlled almost one-third of mainland China’s total smartphone market, which is the biggest worldwide and is largely made up of Android device users.

Counterpoint estimated that total smartphone shipments on the mainland crossed 120 million units in the third quarter.