Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo surpass Xiaomi and Lenovo in global sales

Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo have become the world's fourth and fifth largest vendors in terms of shipments, pushing better-known brands Lenovo and Xiaomi out of the top five.

Oppo shipped 18.5 million smartphones during the first three months of the year, taking the fourth place after Samsung, Apple and Huawei, while Vivo rose to the fifth place with 14.3 million shipments, according to market research company IDC.

Previously Lenovo and Xiaomi held the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

Both Oppo and Vivo have seen impressive growth in China, where smartphone sales have peaked and consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Oppo's shipments in the first quarter of 2016 grew 153.2 percent from a year ago, the strongest growth among the top 5 vendors, while Vivos' shipments rose 123.8 percent year-over-year.

IDS said that whereas Lenovo did well in China in 2013 and Xiaomi rose to success in 2014 and 2015, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo are positioned for strong growth in 2016.

"These new vendors would be well-advised not to rest on their laurels though, as this dynamic smartphone landscape has shown to even cult brands like Xiaomi that customer loyalty is difficult to consistently maintain," Melissa Chau, senior research manager with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said.

Among the fast-growing Chinese smartphone brands, only Huawei has so far been able to sell equally impressive volumes abroad as in China.

"Outside of China, many of these brands are virtually unknown and the ability of these rapidly growing Chinese vendors to gain entry into mature markets such as the United States and Western Europe will be essential if they have aspirations of catching Apple or Samsung at the top," said Anthony Scarsella, research manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team.

Overall, vendors shipped 334.9 million smartphones worldwide in the first quarter of 2016, up just slightly f rom 334.3 million units a year ago, marking the smallest year-over-year growth on record.

The minimal growth was due to strong smartphone saturation in developed markets and year-over-year decline from market leaders Samsung and Apple, IDC said.  

Source: Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo surpass Xiaomi and Lenovo in global sales