Nearly 500 smartphone brands have had to withdraw from the market since 2017

According to a report by research firm Counterpoint, 2017 was the peak of the smartphone market with more than 700 competing brands and sales of 1.5 billion units.

From more than 700 smartphone brands in 2017, this number will be reduced to nearly 250 in 2023. Almost all the smartphone brands that have disappeared are from India, Africa, the Middle East, China, Japan and South Korea. The number of global brands such as Samsung and Apple is still maintained at over 30.

The number of smartphone manufacturers has been decreasing over time.

Counterpoint Research suggests several reasons for this trend over the past seven years. The pandemic and component shortages that began in 2020 had a strong impact, while the global economy slowed sharply after the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, making many small companies unable to withstand the heat.

Local smartphone brands also face many other challenges that lead to their withdrawal. For example, users are less likely to upgrade their phones, cheap devices are getting better in quality, users are moving from 4G to 5G networks, and the "big guys" are taking more market share.

Growth trends of new smartphone sales (gray) and refurbished phones (red) from 2019 to 2022.

Another factor is refurbished smartphones. Refurbished sales grew 14% in 2021 compared to 5% for new phones. The difference is even more pronounced in 2022, with the respective rates falling to 5% and -12%.

Among the smartphone brands that are most regretted to disappear is LG. After 6 years of losses of nearly 4.5 billion USD, LG was forced to close its smartphone division two years ago despite the company owning many innovative devices.

Counterpoint predicts that many other smartphone brands will collapse over time, handing over the reins to the world's giants. However, smaller smartphone brands can survive by finding the right niche, such as Doro, which caters to seniors, and Fairphone, which focuses on easy repair.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/gan-500-thuong-hieu-smartphone-phai-rut-khoi-thi-truong-ke-tu-nam-2017-243532.html