The Philippines was the fasting growing smartphone market in Southeast Asia in Q1, with shipments increasing 20 per cent year-on-year from a year ago to 3.5 million units, according to IDC.

IDC expects the country’s smartphone shipments to expand by 25 per cent this year.

Local vendors dominated the low-end market, offering a wide range of affordable smartphone options. Smartphones priced below PHP3,500 ($75) made up the majority of smartphones shipped.

However, global and Chinese vendors are gradually catching up in the budget segment. The past few quarters have seen vendors such as Samsung and Asus being more aggressive in the sub-PHP6,000 segment, IDC Philippines market analyst Jerome Dominguez said. China-based vendors Oppo and Huawei are also on a steady growth track as they continue to expand channel coverage.

While many more mature smartphone markets are showing signs of saturation, Dominguez said smartphone sales in the country are expected to continue to grow rapidly since smartphone penetration was just 30 per cent last year.

IDC-PHsmartphonesLocal vendors, led by MyPhone, accounted for 53 per cent of shipments last year (see chart, click to enlarge), down from 57 per cent in 2014, while global players’ share rose to 32 per cent from 28 per cent from the previous year. Chinese makers’ share was steady at 15 per cent between 2014 and 2015.