The primary focus of most Chinese OEMs has been to create premium and flagship models because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up netting the highest profit per unit. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that budget phones are now a 12% part of the total market, up from the 9% that was seen in the year prior.
This is still far lower than the 24% share that these phones had back in 2018, but it seems to suggest that economic woes are forcing buyers to look for cheaper options than might have been the case otherwise. One thing that might have led to this increase in sales for budget smartphones is the lowering of manufacturing costs with all things having been considered and taken into account.
This has allowed OEMs to start adding considerable upgrades to smartphones that were previously thought to be obsolete. It is now not entirely uncommon to find entry level smartphones that have been 5G enabled, thereby allowing users to stay active within a smartphone centric society like China’s without necessarily having to spend more than they can afford.
In the last few years, supply chain crunches forced OEMs to stop making entry level smartphones in large enough quantities. Now that the supply chain has normalized somewhat, it is expected that China’s budget smartphone sector will maintain its hold.
However, as the segment’s most dependable consumer class starts to disappear, namely that of low income earners, OEMs might begin to move away from budget smartphones too. The long replacement cycle of 40 months may put a further squeeze on this sector of the smartphone industry.
H/T: CPR
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World
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