Chinese smartphone brand Oppo eyes bigger Europe presence with Vodafone partnership as rival Huawei slumps in region

Chinese smartphone brand Oppo is making a renewed push into the European market through a partnership with telecommunications giant Vodafone at a time when its bigger rival Huawei Technologies has seen slumping sales in the region amid a US trade ban and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Vodafone will distribute Oppo products across its retail channels in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the Netherlands effective May this year, Oppo said in a statement on Monday.

The cooperation with Vodafone signals Oppo’s global ambitions with a strategy to promote the brand in mature overseas markets at a time when Huawei is facing headwinds selling internationally after being put on a US trade blacklist that prohibits it from using Google mobile services. Huawei’s development could be impeded after the US Department of Commerce announced last Friday it would further restrict the ability of Huawei to develop semiconductors using American technologies.

Oppo now accounts for 2 per cent of the European market after experiencing 10-fold growth in the first quarter amid countrywide lockdowns imposed to limit the spread of the pandemic, according to the research firm Canalys. The growth spurt saw Oppo jump to fifth spot in the region, behind fourth-place Xiaomi with 14 per cent and second-place Huawei with 21 per cent market.

Global smartphone shipments fell 13 per cent in the first quarter to 272 million units due to the impact of Covid-19, according to Canalys.

“Oppo is confident that our industry-leading products and technologies will enable Vodafone to win new opportunities in the 5G era,” Oppo vice-president Alen Wu said in the statement.