Canalys: Apple’s smartphone share in Thailand fell 52%

Another chapter in Apple’s Greater China tale of woe.

From a Canalys press release issued Wednesday:

Thailand, the second largest smartphone market in Southeast Asia, suffered another fall in shipments in the fourth quarter of 2018, after a steep decline in Q3 2018. 4.9 million units shipped in Q4 2018, a 13.6% fall year on year, which caused full-year 2018 sell-in to decline 8.6% to 19.2 million units. Oppo overtook Samsung for the first time to become the top vendor, shipping nearly 1.1 million smartphones to take a 22.2% market share. Huawei and Vivo are closing in on the top two at 13.1% and 12.7%, while Apple, in fifth place, reported its lowest Q4 market share in the country. [emphasis mine]

Competition has been intense, as several new players, such as Xiaomi, Honor, Lava and Wiko, have aggressively entered the market in the past two years.

My take: Huawei and Oppo, meanwhile, are going gangbusters (up 73% and 70%, respectively). Apple, as usual, is going for the high-end. See: Big hoopla for Bangkok’s first Apple Store

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