Oppo, Vivo now dominate China's smartphone market

Fickle China consumers are changing the country's smartphone market and pushing its bigger players abroad. The latest numbers from IDC show Oppo and Vivo are now the top two smartphone brands in China, ousting Huawei. The top spot has bounced around the last few years to several different brands. Xiaomi was once the darling of the China smartphone market, but it, too, fell out of favor with local consumers and eventually dropped out of the top five. Now, it is back to number four as of the third quarter. Apple rounded off the top five in last place, having suffered from predicted sales declines.

Huawei is still one of the world's largest smartphone companies and it is not waiting for China consumers to come flocking back. The company announced the Mate 9, which is Huawei's latest flagship smartphone after having released the P9 earlier this year. Notably, Huawei did not start by advertising it in China. Instead, the company has said the phone will launch in Europe for 699 euros, or about $775.

Like the P9, the Mate 9 has a Leica dual-lens camera, one of which is a 12MP RGB sensor and the other a 20MP monochrome sensor. The phone will also use Huawei's Kirin 960 processor, which is the company's fastest yet. Among ARM smartphone processors, however, Qualcomm's Snapdragon series (not on Snapdragon 821) is generally considered the best money can buy outside of Apple's chips, which are only used in iPhones. The handset comes with 64GB of storage, which is better than the 32GB base storage option for most smartphones these days, but the display is only 1080p.

Smartphones from Google and Samsung, which cost less money in some instances, have better displays and, according to reviewers, better cameras. Huawei is trying to position itself as a premium smartphone brand, though, and it cannot do that by selling $400 phones like many of its local competitors. Huawei might be playing a long game here.

Xiaomi is also looking to expand abroad now that smartphone growth has largely dried up at home. The company said it expects to launch in the US within the next two years, a move it has long coveted but potential lawsuits likely kept it from happening sooner. Now, Xiaomi must expand abroad out of necessity and to the benefit of consumers everywhere. ZTE and OnePlus have dominated much of the China smartphone hype in the US, so competition will be steep. ZTE remains the largest China smartphone brand in the US.

These latest moves are further evidence of how China companies use the local market to build expertise and brand awareness, eventually expanding overseas. It is probably only a matter of time before China smartphones become available globally and not just in Asia. They will occupy the high and low ends of the market. Given the current scenario, Oppo and Vivo might be next in line to make and aggressive expansion abroad.