Although the leaders of the smartphone market are obvious, we are never without options as buyers, especially when it comes to Android. However, this situation is a bit problematic for brands. Because not every smartphone manufacturer can survive in this industry.
So much so that 500 brands have exited the smartphone production industry since 2017
More than 700 brands were competing fiercely in the global smartphone market, which reached its peak in 2017. By 2023, the number of active brands has decreased by two-thirds to almost 250, according to the Global Phone Model Sales Tracker, which tracks sales of these brands in more than 70 key countries.
A maturing user base, increasing device quality, longer replacement cycles, economic hardships, supply chain bottlenecks, and major technological transitions such as the move from 4G to 5G have gradually reduced the number and volumes of active brands over the years.
For example, local smartphone brands such as Micromax in India and Symphony in Bangladesh, once known as “local kings”, have lost significant share and even exited the industry in the last five years.
Naturally, the decline in the number of active brands was largely due to local brands, while the number of global brands remained mostly stable. Most local brands operate in lower price bands and in regions with fragmented markets across large geographies such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa.
In the rapidly developing smartphone industry, small brands have had difficulty keeping up with big brands in many areas. While big brands continued to invest in R&D, production and capacity expansion, smaller brands remained largely dependent on white-label devices.
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Additionally, athlete or actor advertising faces can be used in major promotional and marketing events for big brands. Most smaller brands don’t have the resources to do this. There are many other reasons why small local brands fail:
- Failure to keep up with market demand for better features, design, brand equity and ecosystem integration.
- Extremely strong Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo,
- Sectoral problems such as the COVID-19 epidemic and chip crisis.
Going forward, the number of smartphone brands will continue to decline. Large global brands will always be in the best position to adapt to all macroeconomic headwinds and technological transitions in the market. In other words, the number of brands in the smartphone market may drop below 100 in the future.