Thailand’s smartphone market endured a second straight quarter of year-on-year declines in Q4, pulling full year shipments down 8.6 per cent, data from Canalys showed.

Shipments of 4.9 million units in Q4 2018 were down 13.6 per cent compared with the same period of 2017. Canalys said competition intensified as several new brands including Xiaomi, Honor, Lava and Wiko, aggressively entered the market over the past two years.

But consumer demand for smartphones is not growing as the market matures, with the replacement cycle lengthening despite operators offering discounts to stimulate demand.

In the recent quarter Oppo, Huawei and Vivo all grew shipments year-on-year, while Samsung and Apple recorded huge declines.

A 69.8 per cent hike in shipments saw Oppo top the table for the first time, with shipments of almost 1.1 million units giving it a 22.2 per cent market share. Samsung slipped to second after shipments declined 36.1 per cent to a little over 1 million units.

Huawei placed third as shipments jumped 73 per cent to 645,000 units, taking its share to 13.1 per cent: it displaced Vivo, which achieved a 12.7 per cent share following a 13 per cent rise in shipments.

Apple’s shipments declined by 52.2 per cent year-on-year, leaving it in fifth spot with an 8.6 per cent share.

Canalys predicted overall shipments will grow 4.1 per cent this year on the back of broader economic growth expected following a forthcoming general election.