IDC: Smartphone shipments continue to struggle. Infinix (Transsion) continues to rise in the Philippine smartphone space


With top-notch specs at prices even Xiaomi couldn’t beat. It’s obvious they would fair really well.

Realme GT Neo 3. The company’s latest handset. Realme is the highest-selling smartphone manufacturer in the Philippines

IDC has officially released its 2nd quarter sales report for this year in terms of smartphone shipments. Their analysis concluded that smartphones continue to decline in demand, resulting in fewer smartphone shipments.

In the Philippines, shipments went down as low as 3.1% compared to last year. Despite this decline, on a quarterly basis, shipments grew by 9.1% and in total, about 4 million smartphones were shipped.

“The number of smartphone shipments below US$ 200 improved significantly QoQ, as players such as Transsion and Cherry Mobile launched new models in this segment, but remained low on an annual basis, due to low demand and supply. The number of shipments for models in the higher price categories also slowed down as consumer spending declined due to economic headwinds,” said Angela Medez, Market Analyst at IDC Philippines

As seen on the chart above provided by International Data Corporation (IDC), Aside from the “others” which could include companies like Huawei and Cherry Mobile, Realme is leading the smartphone race by gaining a 21.8% market share. However, Transsion is continuing to surge thanks to its affordable and wide array of budget smartphone choices. There will be a time when Transsion, the company that holds Infinix, Tecno, and Itel, would surpass Xiaomi as their phones have midrange specs at budget prices that Xiaomi couldn’t overtake.

Infinix is Transsion’s biggest company and the main reason why they got 20.5% of smartphone shares. The company provides affordable phones priced at just an average of USD 103 versus the usual USD 193.

Samsung meanwhile declined to fourth place. Their A-series phones weren’t just selling faster than their competitors. It declined 23% QoQ and 12% YoY. However, the company has had better luck with its 5G devices, accumulating 146.2% market growth. This accommodates 40% of Samsung’s total shipments.

In addition, IDC has also cited that PLDT would soon shut down their 3G services, as more and more phones transition to 4G and 5G networks. This could potentially decline sales of some feature phones and increase newer 5G handsets.

Source: IDC