Chinese smartphone brand realme has claimed the top spot in the Philippine smartphone market after posting an impressive annual growth of 962.5% and capturing 25.4% of local market share in the third quarter.
According to research firm IDC, realme led the market for the second consecutive quarter with 56% of its shipments coming from the newly launched entry-level C11, C12, and C15 models.
IDC noted that realme owed its success to its products’ competitiveness and marketing campaigns that included a month-long promotion for young fans. Realme is also expected to bring 5G smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2020 once it receives 5G certification.
Vivo maintained a focus on the low-end segment and launched the Y20i and Y30 models in this segment. It also boosted its position in the higher price segmentsby launching the X series flagship smartphones, its first 5G smartphone in the market.
The Y11 model remained vivo’s best-seller since its launch a year ago and was also the top-selling model for the retail giant MemoXpress for multiple weeks.
Oppo retained the third spot as its affordable A12 and A12e smartphones continued to be its best-sellers. Its shipments declined by a third year-on-year with a drop in both low-end and mid-range segments, but it regained some momentum in the mid-range with the launch of Reno 4.
Huawei, at the fourth position, focused on the mid-range segment, accounting for more than 60% of its’ total shipments with its hero models Y6P and Y7 2019 driving the volume. Huawei’s online channel continued to grow as Huawei launched its online store in September.
Samsung launched multiple smartphones at different price points, driving shipments up quarter-on-quarter. The Galaxy A01 Core and Galaxy A11 in the affordable smartphone category and the flagship Galaxy Note 20 drove growth in the high-end segment. Samsung increased its shipments sold online this quarter, both through third party eTailers as well as directly.
Overall, the Philippine smartphone market registered a 50% quarterly growth shipping in a record of 5.5 million units with an impressive 33% YoY growth in the crucial third quarter of the year.
To foster growth in the country’s dwindling economy, the government lifted the lockdown in June in the country’s capital and other cities allowing more Filipinos to return to work as well as the resumption of retail store operations across the country.
“The reopening of the market enabled the vendors to bring in more shipments to fulfill the pent-up demand from the previous quarter as well as to restock channels as inventories had depleted as soon as the lockdown was lifted”, said Angela Jenny Medez, client devices market analyst at IDC Philippines.
“As the local telco operators, Smart Communications and Globe Telecom, further expand their 5G networks to key cities within and outside of Manila, we expect more vendors to bring in 5G models, with prices dropping further as Chinese vendors become aggressive,” said Medez.
