Indonesian shipments of mid-range smartphones priced between USD 200 and USD 400 have recorded a new high, making up 38% of total smartphone shipments in the third quarter (Q3) of 2019, according to a recent report by IDC Indonesia.
Even so, the country’s smartphone market experienced a seasonal decline of 9.9% this quarter, dropping to 8.8 million units in Q3 from 9.7 million units in the previous quarter. However, the report said that the smartphone market continued to grow yearly in Indonesia, recording 1.8% year-on-year (YoY) growth.
Shipments of mid-range smartphones grew 11.1% YoY, propelled by the need for upgrades and various mobile entertainment uses such as media consumption and mobile gaming. The majority of mid-range smartphones shipped were equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.
Oppo held the biggest market share of 26.2% in both the mid-range and low-end (USD 100–USD 200) categories with its various types of new smartphones such as the Oppo K3, A5, and A9 series. This means that Oppo beat Korean brand Samsung this quarter. Samsung came in third place after Vivo gained significant presence (22.8%) in the mid-range segment. This followed the introduction of its Z1 Pro model, which attracted buyers due to its decent specifications and features at an affordable price.
“Oppo continues to be very aggressive in their marketing activity in both offline and online media, this strategy plays a large part in creating higher mindshare in the market. During this quarter, Oppo also launched several models at various price points, making their offerings far more accessible to all consumer segments,” IDC Indonesia analyst Risky Febrian told KrASIA.
Samsung led the pack in the previous quarter with 26.9% share, but it lost significant market share in Q3 to 19.4%.
“In general, Samsung’s revamped A series smartphones (A10, A30, A50, etc) introduced earlier this year, have been very successful in enticing consumers with new design and features. However, Samsung recently launched the upgraded version of its A series to A-s (A10s, A50s, etc) in such a short period, less than six months,” said Febrian.
“There were also very few upgrades from the earlier series, and thus this has made the A-s series less interesting in the market. This factor was combined with increasing competition from China-based vendors such as Oppo, Vivo, and Realme, which have been very aggressive in introducing new smartphone models in the mid-range and low-end segment, with more attractive specifications and prices,” he continued.
According to the report, Realme had been competing aggressively with its marketing campaigns during the quarter. It was ranked fourth with a 12.6% share due to its large shipments in the low-end and ultra low-end segment (below USD 100). Ranked slightly lower than Realme, Xiaomi also made the list as it held 12.5% market share, due to its newly-launched Redmi 7A that has been popular in the ultra low-end segment.
IDC Indonesia said that brands not included in the top five list have been impacted by the China-based brands, resulting in a continuous loss of market share and leftover inventory from previous quarters.
IDC Indonesia releases a smartphone market report every quarter. Its methodology entails measuring the market by the volume of smartphone shipments, which tracks the number of smartphone units distributed to the market from each smartphone vendor.