Transsion, the little-known mobile manufacturer which ranks after Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi in the Top 5 worldwide

Even though smartphones have become an essential tool in the daily lives of billions of people, this does not mean that all markets are the same or behave according to the same premises. For example, in the United States, Apple dominates with an iron fist, while In Europe, competition is fiercepartly because of Chinese manufacturers who use our country as a gateway to Europe.

Even if the most lucrative markets remain Western ones, some companies know that establishing themselves there is complicated and expensive and therefore focus on other regions of the world, such as Southeast Asia, India or Africa. These are markets with lower purchasing power but with much greater growth potential, and with a population that gives enormous value to the economy of scale.

A good example of a company that has opted for this strategy is Transsion, a Chinese company that operates with brands such as Infinix, Itel and Tecnoand which positioned itself as the fourth best-selling conglomerate, behind Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi, in the first quarter of 2024.

A new trend?

By the end of 2024, Apple managed to take first place as the leader in smartphone sales from Samsung. Fourth quarter figures are still positive for the Cupertino company for the first iPhone sales of each year, which are usually announced in September, and with a Christmas campaign that brings together a large part of the transactions.

In 2024, Samsung has managed to regain this position, but what is striking in the graphs that show the percentages and sales is not so much the evolution of the first two positions but rather who has placed itself in fourth place , just between Xiaomi and OPPO. This is Transsion, a company which entered the Top 10 manufacturers four years ago and which is now in the Top 5.

This company does not sell phones under its own brand, but it has some of the largest in emerging markets. This is something similar to what happened with BBK, which incorporated companies such as OPPO, vivo, realme and OnePlus, among others. In total, this conglomerate increased its sales by 84.9% compared to the first quarter of 2023, and increasing for several years.

Focus on emerging regions

One of the most striking features of Transsion, which they themselves boast about, is the focus on emerging regions. Do not expect this company to start marketing its products in Europe, Japan or the United States. The company, based in Shenzen, is clear that its niche market (if you can call a niche a market of billions of people) is in countries where technology is just as important as in countries developed, but where it still does not exist. There has been an explosion in its use, at least not in the same terms.

Hay many African countries where the main Internet access is via mobile, but because there was no prior process. The same thing is happening with digitalization in areas such as banking. Most digital funds transactions are carried out from mobile phones and not computers. These are the markets in which Transsion wants to expand not only as a manufacturer of hardware, but also as a provider of services and benefits, and this is where it can make the most money. To do this, it has developed its own strategies, such as giving your mobile phones the ability to work with multiple SIM cards. And not just dualSIM, but triple or quadruple. The poor mobile infrastructure in many territories makes it a necessity. The average user in Africa uses two SIM cards on average. Another aspect in which it has specialized is offering better image quality for dark skin, predominant in these regions.

Tecno, Infinix and Itel and more

Tanssion has three major telephone brands, which it adapts to the different markets and regions in which it wishes to operate. One of the best known is TECNO, which is present in no less than 70 countries and regions around the world. This company has focused on global emerging markets, where, in addition to smartphones, it offers smart wearable devices, computers and tablets for sale, with a strong presence of its HiOS operating system. Despite this, it presented high-level products, such as a foldable smartphone.

Another bet of the company is Infinix, a brand also present in these markets and which focuses more on design and a young audience. It is something similar to what gave birth to realme, a subsidiary of OPPO designed for India with the aim of expanding to a very specific audience. This move was also seen during the initial launch of HONOR, when it was a subsidiary of Huawei.

The latest of Transsion’s smartphone brands is Itel, whose approach stands out from the other two, focusing on the economic factor as one of the main selling points in more than 50 countries in which it operates. In developing countries, price remains decisive and this brand strives to adjust prices as much as possible, both for phones and other devices, such as smartphones, televisions, speakers, etc.

But these three brands are not the only ones in the group to manufacture devices. It is also Oraïmo, specialized in IoT devices, such as TWS earphones, smart watches, portable batteries or vacuum cleaners. It focuses on the markets of Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. The last one is Syinix, a company focused on home products, such as smart TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves, etc. For now, it only operates in certain markets in Africa.

More than material

If the main brands known to Transsion are those of its smartphone subsidiaries, The Chinese company has branches that involve online services or the Internet of Things, with several brands within the same strategy. For example, although it uses Android across all its brands, the customization of the layers is very strong, incentivizing the use of certain applications.

These interfaces, such as HiOS, itelOS and XOS, focus on providing a user experience tailored to certain regions, such as Africa, where their mobile brands sell millions of units. The company has developed a application store, an advertising distribution platform and other applications and services. Additionally, it has partnered with other Chinese giants such as Netease and Tencent to develop products designed for mobile Internet in developing countries.

They currently have over 10 million users across platforms such as Boomplay, focused on music streaming, or Scooper, focused on current events. This approach is more similar to that taken by Chinese brands in their home country than to that observed in the West, where the Google Play Store is the center of applications and services for the vast majority of Android phones, if not all . Huawei is the exception, but not by choice.