The smartphone market in the Philippines grew by 6 percent year-on-year with almost 18 million units sold in 2024, despite a weakening peso and inclement weather, the latest International Data Corp. (IDC) quarterly mobile phone tracker report said.
The IDC said the smartphone market’s upswing was supported by economic growth last year and the strategic approach by vendors, who brought in additional entry-level models to keep smartphones affordable to Filipinos.
More than half of the total shipment in 2024 were priced below $100 or P5,800, with Transsion sub-brands such as Infinix, Tecno and Itel reaching 4.8 million units at the same price point, and driven by Infinix’s Smart series and Tecno’s Spark Go series.
The average selling price dropped to $179 in 2024 from $192 in 2023.
The IDC report also said the top smartphone vendor in the Philippines was Transsion, a Chinese company that manufactures brands such as Infinix, Itel and Tecno, with a 37.3 percent market share.
Realme had a 13.3 percent market share, Xiaomi and Vivo with 11 percent each.
Oppo rounded out the top five vendors with a 10 percent market share.
According to IDC, the market share of other smartphone vendors reached 17.6 percent last year, up from 16.7 percent recorded in 2023.
“While the last quarter slowed down, with an annual decline of 11.8 percent due to early launches by vendors in the prior quarter, it remained the strongest quarter for smartphones, with almost 5 million shipments in 4Q24 (fourth quarter of 2024) driven by the holiday season,” Angela Medez, IDC Philippines senior market analyst, client devices, said in a February 11 statement.
The Philippines has about 79 million units of smartphones — based on a penetration rate of 72 percent of the country’s population of 110 million — as estimated by Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform.
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