(Photo/Shanghai Daily)
The "smart talk" last weekend was over smartphones, after International Data Corp (IDC) reported that Oppo and Vivo had overtaken Huawei and Xiaomi to become the best-selling mobile phone brands in China in the third quarter.
Oppo and Vivo, both owned by Guangzhou-based BBK Electronics, ranked first and second respectively in the IDC domestic rankings, surprising both the media and the information technology industry.
It's another sign of the emerging importance of domestic producers in the world's biggest mobile phone market.
In the third quarter, China smartphone sales grew 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 108.1 million units. The top five vendors were Oppo, with a 17.5 percent market share, Vivo with a 16.7 percent share, Huawei, with 15.7 percent, Xiaomi with 8.7 percent and Apple with 7.1 percent, US-based research firm IDC reported.
Huawei sales rose 23 percent on the year, while Oppo surged 122 percent in the same period.
As a technology reporter, I am not as interested in numerical rankings as I am in the emerging muscle of domestic technology in a market so long dominated by foreign brands. It's a sign that Chinese firms are coming into their own, becoming more aggressive and innovative.
Just look at Oppo's rapid battery-charging technology and improved camera processor, ZTE's naked-eye 3D photography and display, Huawei's dual camera with Leica design, Xiaomi's "coolest-looking" concept model and LeEco's eye-catching debut of its US store.
Indeed, the IT scene this autumn is radically different from that of a year ago, when domestic handsets suffered from sameness in design and lack of innovation. Firms like Xiaomi and Huawei used to spend a lot of time focusing on features of Qualcomm's processor and Sharp's screen, which are used in various models.
A change in thinking has been ringing up booming sales.
"Oppo's success is not something that was achieved overnight," said Xiaohan Tay, a senior analyst at IDC. "It has key strengths, such as its VOOC fast charging technology and the elegant design of its phones. This, coupled with its aggressive marketing tactics, helped it succeed in the marketplace."
The July figures announced by Oppo, a company not prone to talking about such figures, showed 7 million units of its R9 model sold, meaning a sale of an average 1.1 units each second.
In the upgraded R9s model released last month, Oppo has a camera senor co-developed with Sony, featuring faster focus and better performance in dark environments. It's Oppo's first venture into the up-steam camera segment. The preorder sales of the new R9s "doubled" that of R9, said Oppo without revealing more figures.
