After a week practically dedicated to the launch of the Galaxy S22, this week has been rather quiet on the mobile landscape. Maybe it’s just the calm before the MWC storm that’s coming in a few days. For the Winner and Loser this week we took a look east. There we look at the changes in the Chinese smartphone market and a popular game that has been banned in India.
But before we dive into the best and worst news of the past seven days, let’s take a look at some of the top NextPit headlines from the past week:
Winner of the week: Honor
Free from the restrictions imposed on its previous owner Huawei, the independent Honor overtook its local rivals to take second place in the huge Chinese market in the last quarter of 2021.
Of course, this pales in comparison to Huawei’s numbers in its glory days, but the second-place finish in Q4 is notable given that Honor’s two main rivals, Oppo and Vivo, lost around 14% of their market share, while Honor increased its shares more than doubled.
Honor (nearly) outperformed its rivals in the last quarter / © Counterpoint Research
The figures come from the analysts at Counterpoint Research. They found that total smartphone shipments in China fell 11% compared to the last quarter of 2020. Apple had a particularly strong quarter because the fourth quarter is typically the first full trimester of new iPhones on store shelves.
Buy the Honor 50 for 479 euros from Amazon
The report also highlighted Honor’s performance in the mid-to-high-end market segment, with products like the Honor 50 taking first place in its segment. Oppo, on the other hand, couldn’t hold its place even if you include OnePlus in the shipping numbers.
The Honor 50 not only performed well in NextPit’s test, but was also a hit among Chinese buyers / © NextPit
Back to Honor, Counterpoint analysts are optimistic about the future of the brand. The launches of the Honor 60 and the Magic V series are already showing a further increase in market share.
I’ll admit that I was very skeptical about Honor’s chances after the spin-off. But as the company increasingly unravels its relationship with Huawei, it might be worth keeping an eye on Honor.
Loser of the week: Free Fire
For the loser of the week, we’ve chosen a game that’s relatively unknown in Europe and the US but incredibly popular in developing countries: Free Fire. The game developed by Garena has been banned in India. It is the number one top-grossing Android app and game in India according to Sensor Tower.
The ban is part of another wave of restrictions imposed on Chinese apps by the Indian government. Although Garena is based in Singapore, Chinese giant Tencent is one of the company’s largest shareholders.
Loud Bloomberg Shares held by Garena owners on the New York Stock Exchange fell 19% immediately after the news. This not only caught one of the eight highest-grossing games of 2021 – with an estimated $ 1.1 billion in sales last year. But also the best game of 2021 on Google Play in the “Users’ Choice” category.
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the prominent characters in Garena’s Free Fire / © Garena
It remains to be seen whether the ban will have a significant impact on the game’s revenue. Although India is one of the largest markets for Free Fire, the game has already overtaken smash hits (and battle royale competitors) PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile in revenue in the US market, according to analysts at Sensor Tower .
Have you tried Free Fire yet? Do you think it’s just a PUBG clone in third person view? And where do you see Honor’s global market share this year? Leave a comment below with your opinion and if you want, let us know your expectations for MWC 2022!