As of September, total shipments of Chinese 5G smartphones reached 485,000, with Vivo, Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi dominating the market.
5G. Image credit: Shutterstock
Vivo constitutes over 50% of the market share of China's 5G smartphones in 2019Q3; IDC China released the data after the three state-run operators launched 5G services to the masses on October 31.
As of September, total shipments of Chinese 5G smartphones reached 485,000, with Vivo, Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi dominating the market. Especially, Vivo not only aggressively introduced medium to high-end phones through online platforms but also the high-end flagship handsets through offline channels. It takes over 50% of the 5G phone market.
According to IDC China, the domestic 5G phone market is mainly comprised of two price ranges: medium to-high priced phones of about USD 450 to 550 and the high-end phones of over USD 700. Xiaomi occupies the mid to high-end price segment, while ZTE and China Mobile smartphones are sold in the range of USD 600 to 650.
China Mobile seems to gain a first-mover advantage in the smartphone market compared with other telecom giants. As EqualOcean previously reported, less than one week after being granted the basic telecommunications service operating permit on June 6, China Mobile ordered 10,100 handsets from Chinese domestic manufacturers, including 5,000 smartphones from Huawei; 2,000 each from Xiaomi and ZTE; 1,000 from Oppo; and 100 from Vivo.
During the past 5 months after the first 5G licenses being granted, 86,000 base stations began to transmit 5G signals and 20 5G mobile phones have been tested. Although more participants join the 5G discussion, mass adoption is still a long way to go.
According to The Beijing News, handset manufacturers, who rolled out 5G mobile phones in the first half of 2019, were targeting marketing strategies to show their capabilities. With the arrival of the official commercialization of 5G, the intension of manufacturers to launch 5G phones is becoming more pragmatic: "the smartphones launched are the 5G phones that they really want to sell." Ding Wei, the managing director of Huawei and the operator business group, said recently that it is expected that there will be 5G mobile phones priced below CNY 3,500 (USD 500) by the end of this year.
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