A new look at the global shipment of mobile phones, released by Strategy Analytics, has shown that Oppo has bested Samsung in the first quarter this year shipping more of their flagship handset, the R9S than any of Samsungs current offerings.
The data from Strategy Analytics shows that of the 353.3 million units shipped globally in Q1 2017 Apple still shipped the most amount of handsets, with the iPhone 7 shipping 21.5 million units, while the larger iPhone 7 Plus shipped 17.4 million units. Oppo has jumped into third place with the Oppo R9s, shipping 8.9 million units. Samsung’s Galaxy J3 and J5 came in fourth and fifth, with the Galaxy Note 7 a notable absentee from the list due to the global recall last year due to safety concerns after some units caught fire.
Michael Tran, Executive Director, OPPO Australia said of the findings ‘Australia is one of those countries and we’ve seen huge demand for the R9s within our retail partners. This is due to the fact the R9s provides a premium quality look and feel, whilst offering features typically associated with flagship smartphones, for an affordable price’
The data from Strategy Analytics shows that in terms of market share, Oppo is now third place in terms of global shipments in Q1 with the R9s, though it’s likely to change in Q2 with Samsung releasing the Galaxy S8 and S8+ which Samsung has said were selling in greater numbers than even last years Galaxy S7/S7 Edge.
While Oppo has seen significant growth in Australia since their launch here in 2014, it’s the Chinese market where Oppo is really doing well. Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said,
OPPO R9s shipped 8.9 million units for third place and 3 percent marketshare worldwide in Q1 2017. OPPO is largely unknown in the Western world, but its brand is wildly popular in China and growing rapidly across India. The R9s is OPPO’s flagship 4G device with key features such as dual-SIM connectivity and fingerprint security.
Oppo does have some great handsets on offer both here and in China, and the R9s is leading the charge as evidenced by our recent review of the R9s and R9s Plus, it’s great to see another manufacturer making it into the top 3, but we’ll see what happens next quarter.
