According to the latest report from our WSS service:  VALUE SHARE: Global Smartphone Revenue, ASP and Profit by Vendor by Price Tier : Q3 2019, global smartphone revenue went up +2% YoY during Q3 2019. Smartphone shipments also grew +2% YoY too, while wholesale ASP stabilized annually this quarter. Apple and Samsung maintained leadership positions, but their value share continued to drop to 54% this quarter.

Among the top ten list, the Chinese brand Realme is the rising star. It ranked the eighth largest smartphone vendor by shipment volume, and the ninth largest by smartphone revenue in Q3 2019. The strong momentum in India mainly led to the solid growth. However, the smartphone wholesale ASP is much lower than major OEMs, including the sibling brand OPPO, vivo and OnePlus, indicating most volumes came from low end and mid-tier models. We estimate Realme turned into black this quarter thanks to the solid volume and value. Realme is aggressively extending from online towards offline, from India to other countries in the following quarters.

We expect the vendor would maintain momentum in 2020, but it needs to carefully manage inventory risk. Furthermore, it needs to stand out by tech innovations, which will lift up brand image and ASP / profit margin.