Lenovo and Xiaomi drop out of the top five smartphone vendors club as OPPO and vivo take their places

The latest study by the research firm IDC (International Data Corporation) suggests that smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2016 have seen a 0.2 percent increase as compared to the same period in 2015. As per the firm, a total of 334.9 million smartphone units were shipped by the vendors this quarter. A significant highlight of the report is that Lenovo and Xiaomi have dropped out of their fourth and fifth positions respectively, and have been replaced by OPPO and vivo.

As per the report, OPPO, which has been expanding outside China, saw a growth of 153 percent and grabbed a 5.5 percent market share. Vivo on the other hand posted a sales growth of 123 percent and secured a 4.3 percent market share last quarter. Outside of China, OPPO and vivo mainly focus on selling devices via brick-and-mortar stores instead of the online sales model of Xiaomi and Lenovo. The latest stats suggest that Xiaomi and Lenovo’s market positions were far weaker than they may have seemed.

Behind the change in the positions, there appears to be a major shift in the Chinese market that has hurt the most successful vendors there. The report reads that, “As the China market matures, the appetite for smartphones has slowed dramatically as the explosion of uptake has passed its peak. In 2013, China's year-over-year shipment growth was 62.5%; by 2015, it had dropped to 2.5%. Conversely, the average selling price (ASP) for a smartphone in China rose from US$207 in 2013 to US$257 in 2015,”.

As for the first three spots, there’s no change there, which are still claimed by Samsung, Apple, and Huawei respectively. Samsung retained its number one position with a market share of 24.5 percent last quarter, while Apple is at number two with a 15.3 percent stake, followed by Huawei on the third spot with 8.2 percent.

IDC’s report suggests that the worldwide smartphone market saw its slowest growth of 0.2 percent, but it’s a slight increase from the 334.3 million smartphone sales figure reported in the first quarter of 2015. 

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