Hisham Sarwar
According to an analysis, the Mighty brand “Apple” is losing its touch in the Chinese marketing industry. This tech giant is facing a cut throat competition with unlikely competitors that are producing the same high class technology by being budget friendly for the customers.
Apple’s iPhone which is considered a status symbol cannot be afforded by most of the Chinese but similar features are becoming available by smartphone brands about which you must have never heard before.
These brands do not include Xiaomi, which was the iPhone’s complete imitation; it was popular three years ago but has lost its place in the market now. It is no more Apple’s biggest problem in China. Neither has it included Huawei, which used to make low budgeted and good quality smart phones. It spreads its wings in many countries of the world but kept trying to make a presence in the international market. Huawei is still in the process of looking for 5G technology.
According to Canalys, which is a market research firm, reported that Apple might be losing significance in the Chinese market because of the availability of the better smartphones with a cost effective approach towards consumers. Apple’s revenues from the Chinese market of 563 million smart phone users, a total of $8.85 billion for the quarter ending June 25, fell 33% from the same time last year.
Surprisingly, Apple’s sales have been eclipsed by three not so famous brands Oppo, Vivo, and Meizu. In recent months, these brands have launched sleeked high-end smartphones that have over shadowed the presence of iPhone.
These brands are hitting straight on the Apple’s sales by keeping the prices of their smartphones lower than the iPhones. For example Vivo X5Pro is available for $300; Oppo’s R9 touts the fastest battery charging in the market. Some of the models of these brands are available at a much cheaper costs because they are using slow processors. But people prefer these brands because their quality is no less than any iPhone not they give any impression of a cheap smartphone.
According to Tay Xiaohan, the senior market analyst with IDC, says
“The pricing of Oppo and Vivo is kept at the mid-range segment, therefore consumers do not see these brands as that of a low-cost Chinese vendor, but a brand that is desirable”.
He also stated that Oppo is considered to have the high quality camera standards whereas Vivo’s smartphones are equipped with better quality sound systems.
According to the Managing director with market research firm Marbridge Consulting in Beijing,
“Oppo and Vivo are winning market share the same way that Chinese vendors took share away from Nokia back in 2002 and 2003, by paying close attention to what Chinese users really want and exploiting marketing and distribution channels that are not overly saturated”.
According to IDC data, Oppo is considered to have taken over 5.5% of the smartphone industry share, Vivo took 4.3% of the market share in China.
Meizu, established in 2003, expanded in the smartphone market in 2008. It develops high-end smartphone devices and focus on creating innovative and user friendly approach production. In the previous year, it shipped 20 million handsets for a 350% gain.
Although Meizu do not stand in the top five lists in china but analysts predict it to be reaching the heights in the international market in no time.
