Smartphone shipments in the emerging Southeast Asia region dipped 1 per cent year-on-year in 2017 to 100.7 million units, as declines in Myanmar and the Philippines offset gains in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, IDC announced.

The combined market share of the top-five players – Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei and Apple, respectively – grew to 63.1 per cent in 2017, up from 49 per cent in 2016.

Samsung increased shipments by 25.8 per cent year-on-year to 29.3 million units (see chart below, click to enlarge), boosting its market share to 29.1 per cent from 23 per cent in 2016. Oppo’s shipments grew 29.3 per cent to 17.2 million units: its market share jumped from 13.2 per cent in 2016 to 17 per cent in 2017.

Vivo moved to third place as shipments jumped 118 per cent to 7.2 million units, giving it a 7.2 per cent share, up from 3.2 per cent in 2016. Huawei slipped to fourth despite its market share edging up slightly, as shipments increased 3.8 per cent to 5.4 million units.

Fresh features
Jensen Ooi, senior market analyst with the IDC Asia-Pacific Devices Research team, said the dip in overall shipments in 2017 was due to longer device lifecycles and replacement rates: “In 2018 local vendors will continue to feel the impact as end-users gradually shift their preference to more popular brands and are more willing to invest to upgrade to larger-screen mid-range smartphones,

To stay competitive, Ooi expects local vendors to ship smartphones with features including dual cameras, thin bezels and on-device artificial intelligence. He also tipped manufacturers from the region to introduce devices with Android Oreo Go, while keeping prices affordable at less than $200 to suit the budget of their local target segments.

While low-end devices accounted for 37 per cent of total 2017 shipments, mid-tier models made up 27 per cent on shipments of 27.1 million units, up 54 per cent year-on-year with growth driven by the top-five vendors.

Phablet shipments grew 71 per cent year-on-year to 35 million units in 2017, accounting for 35 per cent of total shipments compared with 20 per cent in 2016.