Brendan James: takeaways from the east, December 2019

When, in the course of certain technological events, the market takes a downturn, and when hopes of a quick rebound dissolve only for the malaise to become the status quo, the need to find a silver lining takes center stage. In discussing mobile phone shipments outright, there’s nothing more that can be said about the sad state of affairs that is plaguing our industry.

Takeaways From The East is not one to tell you traders what you already know and feel, nor to beat the drums of gloom and doom! It’s time to look at interesting choices for opportunity that could point to new places to rake in serious revenue in the short term while we wait for the clouds to lift.

Smartphone shipments in China and India continued their tale-of-two-cities trends in the third quarter of 2019. In the former, Huawei captured its biggest share of the domestic market to date at 40% even as the market shrank 6% year-on-year overall, ac-c o r d in g to Count e r p o in t Research.

The top five brands -Huawei, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Apple, in that order -- accounted for 92% of the entire market, leaving no room for up-and-comers. In India, meanwhile, shipment numbers continue to soar as shipments reached a record 49 million units shipped. Even as Xiaomi led the way, the top five there only accounted for 73% of the market, indicating considerably more room to grow and improve. Counterpoint also reported that the fastest growing brands were RealMe, Vivo, One-Plus, and itel.