SMARTPHONE technology is about to get a whole lot smarter this year due to new working normal hybrid environment amid Covid-19, according to Oppo, a mobile technology provider.
This was also partly in response to the global explosion in social media usage, especially as participation in the metaverse takes off.
Liam Faurie, Oppo South Africa’s head of Go-to-Market and operations, said in an interview that evolving technologies like foldable devices, under-display cameras and flash chargers were fundamentally changing the way in which whole societies innovated, collaborated and lived.
“That means it’s not just about making cutting-edge devices, it’s also about delivering integrated technologies that provide a seamless, natural and interactive experience for the user,” Faurie said.
Supported by the roll-out of 5G technology, which will provide a quantum leap in reliability and connectivity, new smartphones coming onto the market will deliver a host of innovative features, including enhanced camera and video technology for users of platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Triller.
The capacity to engage in social networks using virtual and augmented reality features will, in particular, be a key drawcard for the core 18 to 35 market.
According to Oppo, groundbreaking products coming to market this year will continue to secure the position of the smartphone as the point at which all intelligent networking platforms converge.
Faurie said that buoyed by the global roll-out of 5G, major advances in AI and the warp-speed development of the Internet of Things (IoT), a whole new generation of smartphones was set to change people’s lives forever.
Statista, a German company specialising in market and consumer data, in an article, Smartphone market share worldwide by vendor 2009-2021, published last month, sheds light on the smartphone market.
It said with the launch of the iPhone 13, Apple held the largest slice of the global smartphone market by shipments during the fourth quarter of 2021, after ranking second in 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021, when Samsung was the leading smartphone vendor. Huawei did not make it to the leading five vendors where they dropped out in the previous quarter, with Xiaomi taking a tight grip on the third position.
It said that Samsung, known for consumer products such as mobile devices and home entertainment systems, was consistently among the global leading smartphone vendors. While Apple and Samsung were typically the two major companies challenging for the top spot, Huawei had provided a strong challenge in recent years.
Huawei’s market share reached 20 percent in the second quarter of 2020, however, strong performances from rivals and the effects of the US trade ban have since seen Huawei fall outside the list of top five vendors by shipments.
Statista said Samsung’s main line of smartphone products is the Galaxy series, the first of which was released in April 2009. Samsung has suffered a steep drop-off in shipments as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The company shipped 75.5 million units in the second quarter of 2019, a figure that fell to 54.2 million units by the second quarter of 2020. While their shipments increased during the year, it fell back to 69 million units in the third quarter of 2021.
Statista also noted that Apple as a major manufacturer of smartphones worldwide, with the company shipping more than 90.1 million iPhones worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020. Apple’s sales tended to be very cyclical, peaking in the fourth quarter each year, and in the third quarter of 2021, they shipped 50.4 million units.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE