LG, Huawei and Sony, the underdogs of the smartphone, raise their heads - Echoes

In an industry where size is critical, LG, Huawei and Sony rose faster than Samsung and Apple.

smartphones now second fiddle grow faster than the leaders. – Reuters

This may be a turning point in the smartphone market: for the first time, the regulars supporting roles are close to the front of the stage. They are certainly far behind Samsung and Apple, arch-leaders, but they are catching up. Sony Japanese, Chinese Huawei and ZTE but also the Korean LG saw their sales increase in the first quarter of the year.

This movement is important because in this sector, economies of scale determine the profits. “Unless the second-tier players are able to take strong positions over the next two years, they will struggle to generate significant profits,” say analysts at JP Morgan.

Faster growth

now second fiddle grow faster than the leaders. According to research firm IDC, LG is back in the third position of manufacturers of smartphones, with 10.3 million units sold. This figure may be seven times less than that of Samsung, but the sales volume of the second South Korean have more than doubled in a year, while the smartphone market, he rose by 42%. LG, which uses Android as the operating system, took “a large part of its portfolio of 3G phones, mainly the L series and the Nexus 4. 4G smartphones like the Optimus G also contributed to the success of the group, “say analysts at IDC.

mobile phones of the Asian Group division is back in the green during the first three months of the year. And JP Morgan expects that LG sell 41 million smartphones this year. However, “LG has always face difficult challenges on huge markets like the U.S. and China this year,” notes Linda Sui, expert from Strategy Analytics.

BlackBerry and Nokia behind

Other Asian

to show teeth, Huawei. The Chinese, who had just sold 5 million smartphones in the first three months of 2012, has been almost 10 million during the same period this year. While the equipment was previously mainly located in China and was focused on low cost phones under brand operators, it is mounted range, especially with its Ascend model. It now beginning to reap the fruits of this strategy, which closely resembles the one conducted by Samsung there ten years. His compatriot ZTE that he remains focused on low-end smartphones, following the same trajectory: sales rose 50% in the first quarter

.

Finally, the Japanese Sony is also back. It has sold more than 9 million smartphones in three months, but it should ramp up throughout the year, with models like the Xperia Z, which had some success. Thus, JP Morgan expects that Sony sells more smartphones that LG in 2013 – about 45 million. The gap with BlackBerry and Nokia, now far behind. The Finnish sold only 6 million smartphones in the first quarter.

Written by Guillaume DE Calignon
Journalist
gdecalignon@lesechos.fr