What you need to know
- OPPO is reportedly ramping up its production.
- The company hopes to take Huawei's place in European markets as a result of the latter's legal troubles.
- Huawei is currently the third-largest smartphone maker in Europe, while OPPO occupies only 3% of the market.
The sharks are circling. As Huawei faces unprecedented challenges to its ability to continue running its smartphone business, its Chinese rivals are more than happy to carve up the massive void that may soon be left by the company when it runs out of its stockpile of smartphone chipsets.
A new report from China Starmarket suggests OPPO is already expecting a massive uptick in its European sales as a result of Huawei's stumbles and is upping its production targets accordingly. A statement from the company to the publication suggests its expecting sales in the second half of the year to go up to 100 million units. The publication's supply chain sources, however, offer a more modest estimate of 85 million units.
To put that number in perspective, the company's combined Q3 and Q4 sales in 2019 were only 63.7 million, meaning even the more modest estimate of 85 million units would represent a more than 33% increase in shipments year-over-year.
The reversal of both Huawei's and OPPO's fortunes has seemingly already begun, with the latest findings from Counterpoint Research showing Huawei's European market share in Q1 2020 dropping from 23% to 16% YoY, while OPPO's market share grew from 1% to 3%. Xiaomi, meanwhile, was the biggest beneficiary of the bunch, increasing its share from 4% to 11% in the first quarter of 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Contending for the flagship crown.
With beefy specs and some of the best cameras you can find on a mobile device these days, the Find X2 Pro is gunning for the flagship crown and can easily take on even Samsung's Galaxy S20 series. You can't buy it in North America, unfortunately, but if you're in a country where it is available, the Find X2 Pro is an easy recommendation.
