According to IDC Q1 2022 PH Smartphone sales results, competition slowed down with a reduction of 7.8% compared to the previous quarter as expected vs the Q4 Christmas surge season.
realme at 20.2% and Transsion (Infinix and Techno) at 19.8% are the biggest winners for Q1 2022, having consecutive product releases just weeks apart and technically updating their whole product portfolio by Q1 2022. Giving them strong mindshare and preference for the recovering economy in PH, which prioritizes value and bang for the buck smartphones.
realme updated their strong midrange smartphone lineup with the realme 9 series , GT 2 Neo series, and also added more into the lineup with their sub-brand DIZO for more mindshare. While Infinix focused on revamping their stronger lineup in gaming with the Note 10 Pro, Note 11S, and their new Zero series with 5G capabilites. While other Transsion brand Tecno focuses more on rural areas with on-ground promotions and low-margin smartphones.
While smartphone brands Samsung, Xiaomi, and OPPO trail comfortably respectively. What’s interesting here is the comeback of Samsung into the 3rd spot with better lineup positioning from their Galaxy A series revamp and strong leadership in the flagship smartphone space with their Galaxy S22 and Flip & Fold series. Additionally, Samsung recently took on the gaming space head on with the overtake of sponsorship of the Mobile Legends Professional League from OPPO. This gave additional mindshare for their A series smartphones with a good lineup of performance, AMOLED display, and overall package to be a smartphone of preference for consumers.
Following on 4th is the comeback growth of Xiaomi, especially with more offline stores presence and expansion of Xiaomi stores nationwide. Their strong Redmi 10C, Redmi Note 11, and Xiaomi 12 series gave a catapult of a strong processor lineup with an imaging focus for consumers. Along with their growing smart home products portfolio, the consideration of using Xiaomi is strong than ever. This is probably a strong indicator that Xiaomi’s offline sales will overpass their online sales this 2022.
OPPO clinched the 5th slot due to a lack of supplies in their entry-level smartphones and in our observation lack of focus in their sellable series which is the A-series. While their recent Reno 6 series was overall good, it wasn’t able to align with their activities such as mobile gaming with MPL and others.
vivo on the other hand lost their grip in the top 5 slot, this might be also due to the shortage of supply within their entry-level smartphones and lack of preference due to their lineup focused more on vlogging and not on the hot trend of gaming in PH. But we see a good lineup of a comeback with vivo as their recent T series is a possible revitalizing of direction for the company
Although the chart is a bit unfair, to be honest as Transsion group is a combination of two brands similar to how Xiaomi combines Mi, Redmi, and POCO sales. So the comparison is a bit flawed if taken from a standalone brand perspective.
Nevertheless, for 2022, the battle in the smartphone space is very tight with still an unstable supply of processors due to shortages in the chips and display industry. So it’s anyone’s game to get the best procurement of parts for their smartphones, and less confusion among consumers as small increments of performance for new models is an indicator that consumers will always have a better choice.
