China has long dominated the global mobile handset manufacturing supply chain. And according to ABI Research, Chinese vendors are on their way to doing the same with handset sales.
The research firm predicts that Chinese handset vendors will together capture over 50% of mobile handset sales in 2015, up from 38% in 2013.
Chinese OEMs have traditionally focused on their domestic market, but this is changing rapidly. Huawei and ZTE have already made an impact on the world stage, ABI said, and other vendors such as Lenovo and Xiaomi seek to join them.
Lenovo's $2.91 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google is a clear statement of the vendor's overseas expansion ambitions, and is indicative of Chinese OEMs' growth prospects.
“Chinese vendors already take up five of the top ten places in terms of worldwide market share, despite three of them only really shipping into China,” ABI Research senior practice director for mobile devices Nick Spencer said.
“The Chinese vendors highlight the changing shape of the mobile handset market, as the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem, specifically reference designs, enable the next wave of smartphone growth in low cost emerging markets and amongst price conscious consumers everywhere.”
He said Chinese OEMs are already taking advantage of this trend in Southeast Asia's emerging markets. “But ABI Research expects to see the impact of these Chinese vendors increasing in all emerging markets and even advanced markets, especially on prepay.”