OPPO maintained the fifth position in global smartphone market Q4 2019, though its shipments went down -2% YoY due to weaker performance in home market. If we add up Realme and OnePlus this quarter, the whole group’s post double-digit annual growth this quarter.

Asia Pacific remained as the largest region for OPPO, followed by Africa Middle East and Europe. Despite of the decline in China, OPPO managed to post growth in its major Asian countries. The vendor is expanding hard in Western Europe with new Reno series and A series, and landed in the new market in Central Eastern Europe. It is now eyeing Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Mexico, and South Africa for new growth opportunity in 2020.

OPPO launched its first 5G lineup Reno 3 series in China this quarter and the new models stood out with slim ID design and long battery life. Video is a key use case, so are the faster-download speed, HD video call and multi-angle broadcasting. We however are concerned that the current 5G tariff is high for mass market which is OPPO’s main segment.

OPPO is hit badly by the outbreak of coronavirus in China. The domestic smartphone market will fall sharply in Q1 2020 and the offline channel is impacted more badly than the online channel. The situation is unlikely to be changed till the second half of 2020. OPPO will expand hardly in overseas market and we remain positive that the vendor will make solid progress. However, the outbreak of coronavirus is likely to disrupt the supply chain and new product launch cycle during the first half of this year.

Our latest report Q4 ’19: OPPO: Overseas Bear Fruits but Coronavirus Cast Shadows was published. WSS clients could access the full report via this link.