According to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone shipment in the emerging Southeast Asia (SEA) region recorded approximately 100 million units in 2017.
The emerging countries defined by IDC in this report are Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Despite the 100M shipment, IDC reported that there was a 1% Year-over-Year (YoY).
Among the emerging markets, Myanmar and Philippines were the only countries to record a decline.
“Apart from the growing popularity of the top-4 players that have been able to hold up shipment volumes, majority of end-users are in no rush to acquire a new handset if they have been using midrange ones as the handsets are of decent quality and priced considerably high for this budget conscious region, resulting in longer lifecycles and replacement rates,” says Jensen Ooi, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC ASEAN.
SEA smartphone market highlights of 2017
The devices with an affordable price tag, the midrange smartphone shipments grew 53% YoY, making up 27%. The budget-friendly smartphones still make up most of the market with 37% share.
Samsung took the top spot in the midrange segment with its Galaxy J series.
OPPO and vivo continued to expand their brand presence with their proven marketing effort thru celebrity endorsements and loud marketing activities. OPPO’s F series and vivo’s V series are the main highlights.
The Nova series made Huawei to the top 4 in the list.
“In 2018, local vendors will continue to feel the impact as end-users gradually shift their preference to more popular brands and are more willing to invest in their upgrade to larger screen midrange smartphones. Most would soon be equipped with enticing features such as dual cameras, thin bezels, on-device Artificial Intelligence (AI) and so on. To stay competitive, we expect the local vendors to ship smartphones with some of these features as well and introduce devices that come with Android Oreo ‘Go edition’ while keeping the price affordable at <USD$200 to suit the budget requirements of their local target segments,” ends Ooi.
See also: OPPO Delivers Double-Digit Growth and is Still Ranked No.2 in South-East Asia for 2017
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