The growth of brands such as Xiaomi and Huawei mean that they have now become as familiar as the more established names such as Apple, Samsung and Nokia.
Over the last three years C-brands have driven a reshaping of the price tier dynamics within the mobile phone market.
From Kantar’s Worldpanel ComTech panel, it is possible to see that C-brands now represent 26% of the market in the EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy), 12.5% in Australia and 4.3% in the United States (a smaller share in-part due to the on-going China/US trade war).
The foundation of C-brands’ success is down to creating a compelling low-mid tier range of smartphones.
C-brands largely capture low-income consumers, offering them the attractive position of low prices with the accessibility to new high-quality devices.
Although the positioning of C-brands is ideal for consumers wanting to upgrade from legacy brands (such as Sony and Nokia), smartphone leaders Apple and particularly Samsung have not escaped the pressure of the growing popularity of C-brands globally.
However, the rise of C-brands have been met by challenges; the China/US trade war, Google’s announcement to pull Huawei’s Android license and more recently the UK government’s ban on Huawei from its 5G network. At least for Huawei, this will limit their future growth potential across many markets.
