Let me start with a question: Did you know that Chinese mobile brands have more than 47% of the global smartphone market? Isn’t that insane? There’s no way you can ignore Chinese smartphone brands whenever you are planning to purchase a new phone.
Just in case you want to, you can click here and know your smartphone brands.
As per Counterpoint Research, Chinese smartphone brands combined shipped 90 Million+ smartphones as of Q3 2022.
Due to COVID and the US sanctions, Huawei’s global shipment has dropped by a significant margin, but it grew in its home country of China.
Chinese brands no longer mean cheap, low quality anymore. Mobile brands from China have become so huge in the global market because they provide value, innovation, and quality products to almost every brand.
Chinese smartphone brands now produce some of the most advanced technologies which give players like Samsung & Apple a run for their money.
Chinese Mobile Brands in 2023
Now let’s get started with the list, please note that the list will not be in any order of quality or any parameter.
1) OnePlus
OnePlus has been the number one premium brand for quite some time now. It’s a brand from BBK electronics that came into the market with its value proposition of “Flagship Killer” but unfortunately became a mainstream high-end brand with its prices rising higher over the years.
Nonetheless, OnePlus makes some of the most quality smartphones. Now, just hold “BBK Electronics” in your brain as we are going to use the name extensively because it is the parent company of some of the most prominent Chinese smartphone brands.
2) Xiaomi
Xiaomi is another brand that arguably started the “value for money” trend in India and around the world, and unsurprisingly, became pretty successful with it.
The Chinese giant houses other smartphone brands like Redmi, Pocophone, and Black Shark. Xiaomi took over the smartphone market by storm in just a couple of years and now it has quite a bit of competition from other brands.
3) Huawei
Huawei is the biggest smartphone maker in terms of sales numbers, but as of this year, things don’t seem quite good with Huawei. It doesn’t only make smartphones, in fact, smartphones are not even its main business.
It is a leader in networking products and apparently, it is years ahead with its 5G technology. It has been losing its partners and suppliers due to sanctions imposed by the US which restricts companies (US companies mainly) from doing any kind of business with Huawei.
First, it lost ARM (Licences Chip Architecture), Google (Supports Android and Google Play services), etc. Read more here
Huawei holds around 46% of China’s smartphone market (including Honor) which is far from “Not doing so good”. However, according to recent reports, the company is pivoting its focus to China’s growing microchip industry.
4) OPPO
Oppo is another major brand in the smartphone market and much like many other Chinese smartphone companies, BBK Electronics is the parent company of Oppo as well.
Around 10% of the global smartphone market share is held by Oppo as of Q3 2022.
Oppo started out focusing on the offline market in India but soon started to take e-commerce seriously. During its early days in India, you would seriously be seeing an Oppo banner once you step out of the house. They painted every Indian city with Oppo banners, and it is still like this somehow.
5) Vivo
Another BBK Electronics brand – Vivo also became a huge player in this industry and it’s insane how Chinese smartphone brands took over the world so quickly.
Vivo is a similar brand to Oppo, spends hugely on marketing its products, and currently holds 9% of the world’s smartphone market.
6)Realme
Realme is a sub-brand under Oppo. Its first phone literally had the “OPPO” brand in it but slowly transitioned itself to become a separate brand altogether.
It’s huge in the Indian market and gives tough competition to Redmi, which is a Xiaomi brand. The company took a huge chunk of the market from Xiaomi in India by offering value-for-money devices to compete with Redmi.
It’s an Oppo brand so, it’s also a BBK Electronics brand.
7) Redmi
Redmi is a sub-brand of Xiaomi which largely focuses on the budget category of the market. It came in as a “model name” and was a huge success later. As a result, Xiaomi turned it into a separate brand.
Xiaomi started this whole “budget” game in India and around the world. The company started to sell online with its hype marketing strategy of “Flash Sale” and it literally made other brands follow the same strategy in the market. Needless to say, it was a huge success.
8) Honor
Honor is a brand under Huawei, and the sales figures and market share of Huawei also includes Honor’s numbers. So, as one can imagine, Honor plays a huge role for its parent company Huawei.
Huawei launched Honor as a sub-brand, mainly focusing on the budget segment of the Indian smartphone market but couldn’t really keep up with other players like the Xiaomi & other BBK electronics brands.
9) TCL
Until recently TCL was mostly known for its TVs. However, the company entered the smartphone market with its first smartphone the “10 Pro” yes, its first smartphone is called “10 Pro” for some reason.
The smartphone market in China and around the world has matured a lot over the years. So, for a new player to get in and garner attention in the cluttered smartphone market is quite a task. So, TCL went under the radar quite literally.
Conclusion
There are a few Chinese smartphone brands that are not included in the list like Zopo, Zuk, Gionee, etc.
Chinese smartphone brands have been a huge success in China and around the world. The only non-Chinese smartphone brand which left a mark in China is Apple. Even Samsung was not able to gain a significant market share in the smartphone market of the Chinese territory.
Tell us what you think about these brands in the comment section.
*All the Logos are a trademark of the respective companies or their affiliates.
Which is the no. 1 Chinese smartphone company?
While it is difficult to declare a smartphone company the no. 1 company in the world, when it comes to Chinese smartphone brands, Xiaomi has had a dominant place in the global smartphone market and is continuing its expansion in China and around the world.
Which are the Chinese competitors of Samsung?
Samsung has been facing quite a lot of competition in the smartphone market, especially in the budget and mid-range segments, from Chinese brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, and others.
Which company is the largest producer of smartphones in China?
Despite US sanctions and the trade war between China and the US, Huawei, along with its sub-brand Honor, continue to lead the smartphone market in China with a 27.5% market share as of Q1 2023.