Samsung is the world’s – and Asia’s, top smartphone maker. But there are a lot of rival phone-makers out there aiming to dethrone the likes of Samsung and Apple. That competition is especially strong across Asia, where a number of relatively new phone-makers are playing to their strengths in home markets, aiming to get consumers hooked on their own keenly-priced but strongly-specced devices.
Let’s look at the strongest new contenders across Asia. They’re all – individually and collectively – keen to steal sales from more established phone-makers.
China
1 Xiaomi
This is perhaps the best known of any Asian startup, thanks to the fact that it’s already outselling Apple in China and is on course to sell 20 million smartphones this year. What’s Xiaomi’s secret? Its smartphones sell for about half the price of Samsung’s and HTC’s flagship phones, yet the strength and versatility of its Android skin (which it calls MIUI) makes them feel like top-quality products. Xiaomi keeps costs low by selling 70 percent of its phones online, and the rest via telco partners. It has no retail business to drain money. It also sells to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and might go global, in select countries, anyway in 2014.
Lower down in the price range is the Xiaomi Hongmi, which we reckon is the best phone you can get for a mere US$130.
Xiaomi models itself on Amazon, according to its founder. But the company’s minimal product line-up often leads to the media comparing it with Apple. Like Apple, Xiaomi has a streaming media box, and recently adapted that software to put into its own smart TV , the MiTV.
- Flagship phone: Xiaomi Mi3 has a 5-inch 1080p HD screen, 1.8GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 (WDCDMA version) or 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 (TD-SCDMA version) processors; 13-megapixel back camera and a 2-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $325 (16GB) or $405 (64GB) unlocked.
2. Coolpad
Here’s another newcomer now outselling Apple in China. Coolpad is China’s third biggest smartphone brand in terms of sales, according to Gartner, thanks to a broad line-up of mostly cheap Android-based smartphones, with lots of special versions made for China’s three telcos. They won’t win any design awards and won’t blow your mind, but only 13 percent of Chinese people will buy smartphones that cost over $330 (that’s the psychologically important RMB 2,000 barrier) so the low-end market is vast.
Coolpad has been an OEM for several telcos around the world (producing stuff like the MetroPCS Quatrro 4G phone for T-Mobile in the US), and that’s still part of its business. But Coolpad wants to stand on its own brand overseas, and it’s targeting Southeast Asia as a first step.
- Flagship phone: Coolpad Magview 4 has a 5.9-inch 1080p HD screen; 1.8GHz Tegra 4 processor; 13-megapixel rear camera; Android 4.2; costs a whopping $650 unlocked
India
3. Micromax
Of all the firms on our list,Micromax is the closest to its goal of beating Samsung. Micromax shipped two million of its Android-based phones in India from April to June, out of a total of 9.3 million smartphones hitting shelves in the country in that period.
Later this year it will venture overseas by launching in Russia and Romania, two developing markets that it reckons have a strong desire for more affordable smartphones.
- Flagship phone: Micromax A250 has a 5-inch 1080p HD screen; 1.5 GHz MediaTek quad-core processor; 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $325 unlocked.
4. Karbonn In India, local brands like Micromax and Karbonn shipped over half of the smartphones in the country during the second quarter of 2013, representing a massive challenge to Samsung.
Karbonn is a bit smaller than Micromax, but both are growing strongly.
- Flagship phone: Karbonn Titanium S9 has a 5.2-inch 1080p HD screen; 1.2 GHz processor; 13-megapixel rear camera; Android 4.2; costs $295 unlocked.
5. Xolo Though smaller than its two compatriot rivals, Xolo is also keen for a slice of India’s low-end to mid-range smartphone market. Xolo looks set to be India’s first phone brand to sell a 4G phone in the country.
- Flagship phone: Xolo Q900 has a 4.7-inch 720p HD screen; 1.2 GHz Mediatek processor; 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $212 unlocked.
Indonesia
6. Smartfren
Smartfren is different from the others in this list in that it’s a mobile telco company. It has 12.5 million subscribers, and it’s pushing forward Indonesia's shift to Android with its own competitively-priced smartphones.
In our experience, the cheap components can lead to a laggy and sub-par experience on Smarfren’s phones, but then they do cost well under $200 unlocked. Still, Xiaomi’s cheapest phone is only $130 but has much stronger specs and doesn’t feel laggy, so Smartfren (and many others on this list) have some catching up to do on their sub-$200 phones.
- Flagship phone: Smartren Andromax U 4.5 Limited has a 4.5-inch screen at just 960 x 540 pixels; 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor; 8-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front one; Android 4.1; costs $153 unlocked.
Malaysia
7. Ninetology
With an emphasis on style and a bit more attention paid to design than is evident in the others on this list, Malaysia’s Ninetology is already, it claims, Malaysia’s second biggest phone-maker (behind, inevitably, Samsung).
- Flagship phone: Ninetology Z1+ has a 5-inch 720p HD screen; 1.2 GHZ quad-core Mediatek processor; 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front one; Android 4.2; costs $410 unlocked.
Last week, this Malaysian firm launched in neighboring Indonesia.
Source: TECHINASIA
