(Yicai Global) Jan. 5 -- Chinese smartphone maker Oppo Mobile Telecommunications will unveil its Find X3 high-end handsets in the first quarter to square up to Samsung and Apple, the firm’s Founder and Chief Executive Chen Mingyong said yesterday. This marks this Chinese phone maker's first foray into high-end smartphone markets as trailblazer Huawei Technologies encounters chip and other parts supply problems stemming from a US embargo.

Vivo and Xiaomi have also recently released phones in the CNY4,000 (USD609) range and hiked their inventories of handsets in stock.

The Find X3 phone will carry the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, but its pricing is as yet unknown. Oppo’s smartphone shipments more than tripled last year, and deliveries in Western Europe and Japan, home to high-end smartphone users, were 3.4 times and 2.8 times, respectively, of 2019’s, the Dongguan, Guangdong province-based firm told Yicai Global.

Other smartphone makers will carve up the China-made high-end smartphone market that Huawei has explored if it proves unable to work out solutions for its chip supply problems, Flora Tang, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, told Yicai Global.

Lion’s Shares

Oppo and Vivo are likely to reap the biggest windfalls because their products span first- to lower-tier cities in offline sales, while Xiaomi and Realme are expected to secure the largest share online, Tang said.

“Some phone makers boosted their orders in mid-last year. Some were radical in doing so to prepare to seize market share and avert risks amid uncertainties,” Tang stated, adding, “Brands other than Huawei are expected to rise in market share from this year’s first quarter.”

Average smartphone sales prices climbed 10 percent worldwide last year, notwithstanding declining shipments, per a Counterpoint report that said the ASP jumped 10 percent in Asia-Pacific, China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America in the second quarter.

Shipments of fifth-generation network-based smartphones exceeded 200 million units last year and are likely to reach or exceed 500 million units this year, Cristiano R. Amon, Qualcomm’s president, previously told Yicai Global.

The US barred global suppliers from supplying components containing US technology to world's biggest handset and telecom equipment maker Huawei from Sept. 15. The ban includes microprocessors, displays, camera lenses and circuit boards.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi