Apple & HONOR Made Huge Gains In M’sia Smartphone Market, Samsung & OPPO Tanks
Apple & HONOR Made Huge Gains YoY In M’sia Smartphone Market, Samsung & OPPO Tanks
Analyst firm Canalys has published the latest data on Malaysia’s smartphone market as of February 2024, which overall grew 10% compared to last February. The report reveals a huge change in market share among some of the biggest players in the smartphone market, notably the huge gains made by Apple and HONOR, while Samsung and OPPO ended up on the wrong side of the spectrum.
The largest share of the national smartphone market goes to Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi (which also owns Redmi and POCO), which achieved 56% YoY and shipped a total of 133,000 units in the past 12 months. As Canalys pointed out, this is driven by the release of two highly affordable models including Redmi A3 and Redmi 13C. Another Chinese smartphone maker, vivo, follows in second – with 92,000 units shipped, as the recent release of Y100 5G, Y17s and V30 Pro helped the company maintain its stronghold.
The biggest winner here, surprisingly, is Apple: despite being a company selling premium smartphones exclusively, it gained a massive 168% growth year-over-year with a total of 86,000 units shipped (the company also tops the sales value in this list). The expansion of Yes Mobile as the latest sales channel helped the Cupertino company move iPhones along – however, early iPhone 15 discounts indicate weak demand, the firm noted.
HONOR is the other company in this list that achieved huge progress, gaining 95% YoY and expanding its overall market share from 6% to 11%, a figure similar to Apple’s. It shipped 73,000 units in the last 12 months, the success of which can be credited to the release of new models such as the X9b 5G, Magic5 series, and the Magic V2 series.
On the other side, Samsung and OPPO (which includes OnePlus) both see huge losses, both seeing a drop of 53% in shipments, with the Korean electronics giant now occupying just 12% of the market from the market-commanding 27% just a year ago. However, the firm expects it to bounce back in Q1 2024 with the recent introduction of the Galaxy S24 series. Meanwhile, OPPO – vivo’s sister company – lost its second place in 2023 and is now 7th with just 8% of the share (from 19%).
Overall, the Malaysian market has shipped a total of 687,000 units in the past 12 months, and the firm believes there will be room to grow as users enter their new refresh cycle, as well as the push for more 5G-enabled phones. “Measures taken by vendors in Q4 2023 to increase sellout and normalize inventory provided room for growth in Q1 2024,” said Sheng Win Chow, Analyst at Canalys. “Further growth is expected in 2024 fuelled by a natural refresh cycle from a sales spike in 2021.”
Pokdepinion: Quite surprising Apple has gained so many sales in such a short time. I thought the state of our economy wasn’t great lately…?
