BBK Group closes in on Samsung

BBK Group—the parent company of handset brands Oppo, Vivo, Realme and OnePlus—is likely to become the largest smartphone maker globally. During the third quarter of this year, while all the four brands cumulatively cornered around 20 percent of the volume market share, three of them—Oppo, Vivo and Realme—were among the top 10 brands, according to the latest quarterly report by Counterpoint Research. South Korean biggie Samsung occupied the pole position with 20.6 percent market share, followed by Huawei and Apple with 17.6 percent and 11.8 percent, respectively.

The global smartphone market, Counterpoint highlights, stayed flat by reaching 380 million units in shipments, as compared to 379.8 million units in the same quarter last year. Stronger demand in India and China in September helped the global smartphone market to halt the seven-month streak of year-on-year decline. 

Oppo ranked fourth with a 8.6 percent share, Vivo trailed Xiaomi and came sixth with a 7.8 percent share, and the upstart Realme broke into the top 10 ranking for the first time with a 2.7 percent share. Realme, the report shows, remained the fastest-growing brand for the second time in a row. “This is one of the fastest ramp-ups of brands. Strong performances in India and expansions overseas drove its growth,” the report adds. Realme also managed to be among the top five brands in India for the fourth consecutive quarter.