Canalys: Southeast Asia's smartphone market kicks off with a bang in 2024, shipment volume surges by 20%

Master, on March 8th, Canalys released a report showing that in January 2024, the shipment volume of smartphones in the five major markets in Southeast Asia soared to 7.26 million units, a 20% year-on-year increase. Leveraging the consumer demand sparked by several holidays at the end of 2023, smartphone manufacturers focusing on the low-end sector have expanded their sales. In January, Samsung regained the top spot from Transsion with the successful release of the high-end S24 series, boosting brand exposure and stimulating channel interaction. The "Galaxy AI" series made its debut, helping to increase foot traffic and shipments to retail outlets. In 2023, smartphone manufacturers focused on controlling shipments and clearing out old inventory, promoting a return to reasonable inventory levels. This provided an opportunity for manufacturers to actively introduce new products. However, after a challenging year, channels remained cautious about stockpiling inventory. Smartphone manufacturers must carefully optimize their inventory levels and maintain good relationships with their channel partners. With the consumer wave during the holiday season in December, and the push from economic recovery, product launches, and online marketing, smartphone manufacturers fully utilized opportunities brought by the release of important products and channel incentives to stimulate market recovery. Market Performance: Indonesia Indonesia remains strategically significant in the Southeast Asian market, with a shipment volume of 2.7 million units in January, accounting for 38% of the region. With the launch of new products and increased marketing efforts by manufacturers, shipments increased by 12% year-on-year. OPPO benefitted mainly from the high shipments of the Ax8 series, accounting for over 90% of its total shipments, reclaiming its leading position. Consistent with its global POCO strategy, the distribution strategy of the POCO series shifted to online platforms, proving to be effective in optimizing channel sales and preventing cannibalization with the Redmi series. Philippines The Philippines remains the second largest smartphone market in Southeast Asia, with a shipment volume of 1.5 million units, accounting for 21% market share. The market in the Philippines showed the most significant recovery, with a 77% year-on-year increase. With realme and Transsion consecutively releasing devices with high core specifications (such as RAM and ROM) at low prices, competition in the low-end market intensified. Transsion attracted young and value-conscious buyers in January through generous channel subsidies and sponsoring esports teams, successfully consolidating its market position and gaining a 37% market share. In response to Transsion's dominant market position, realme launched the Note50 series priced below $100, making a significant impact on the market. Thailand Smartphone shipments in Thailand increased by 5% year-on-year to 1.3 million units, as the continued economic downturn and weakening Thai Baht led to rising import costs. In response to market dynamics, many manufacturers expanded their product portfolios, adding high-value 5G models with affordable postpaid and prepaid plans to join the push for 5G technology adoption in Thailand. Long-term partnerships with local operators helped Samsung and Apple establish market dominance. Vietnam Vietnam was the only market in the region to experience a decline, with smartphone shipments dropping by 2% to 848,000 units in January. The recovery of the Vietnamese smartphone market was slower than expected, with mainstream distributors such as Mobile World and FPT shifting to new areas like AI. Malaysia The Malaysian smartphone market demonstrated resilience in the region, with a 33% month-on-month increase in shipments to 831,000 units in January. This was attributed to government initiatives to promote the adoption of 5G technology. Canalys monthly data showed that the share of operators increased from 17% in the first quarter of 2023 to 21% in the fourth quarter and peaked at 22% in September when the Rahmah plan began. Samsung and Honor continued to strengthen their cooperation with operators in 2023 and contributed to the success of the Malaysia 5G project. In January, Samsung became the market leader with a 20% market share, while Honor's shipments doubled from the previous year. The continuous efforts of Samsung and Honor to collaborate with operators and drive the Malaysia 5G project in 2023 paid off. Canalys analyst Zhou Lexuan stated, "The performance of the top five markets in Southeast Asia in January was impressive. With government support, inflation pressures are gradually stabilizing, promoting consumer confidence and spending recovery. In order to take advantage of this market recovery cycle, smartphone manufacturers who have adopted conservative strategies in the past six months are now embracing more aggressive tactics to gain market leadership. Balancing between device pricing and inventory management is the main challenge for smartphone manufacturers, especially as channel partners remain cautious after a challenging market start. Looking ahead, affordable 5G, AI integration, ecosystem development, and channel optimization have become the major evolving factors in the industry in the region. Smartphone manufacturers urgently need to find new growth points. Emerging trends such as affordable 5G, AI integration, ecosystem development, and channel optimization are becoming the main driving forces for the industry's development in the region."