With a market value of more than 100 billion baht, Thailand's smartphone market will continue to be a "sweet spot" in Southeast Asia for device makers, mainly for the flagship models, amid the country's challenging economy and less handset subsidy support from mobile phone operators, says Chinese smartphone maker Oppo.
The country's smartphone market will continue to see intensifying competition as it is an attractive market in the Southeast Asian region, said Chanon Jirayukul, senior executive vice-president at Thai Oppo Co.
Thailand has above average mobile phone selling prices, due to consumers' strong purchasing power for the flagship models. Amid the difficult economy, models in the premium segment have experienced the least impact, compared with entry-price smartphones which have been hit with declining sales.
"You can see that the market has new players coming in all the time, and they come and go and even re-enter the market. All competition brings benefit to consumers," said Mr Chanon.
While smartphone unit sales might fall, the market value is very promising, he added.
He said that Thailand's overall smartphone market will hardly grow in 2023 amid the challenging economic situation, while mobile phone operators are continuing to reduce smartphone price subsidies as they have tightened their marketing budgets this year.
Mr Chanon said that in the local high-end segment, over the past few years Oppo's market share has improved, and in 2023 it launched the Oppo Find N2 Flip smartphone model which has been well accepted.
Mr Chanon, centre, says that in the next milestone, the company aims to boost market share of its flagship models from a single digit to a double-digit share.
The company now aims to boost the market share of its flagship models from a single digit to a double-digit share, he added.
He said that Thailand is Oppo's first market outside of China. Setting foot in Thailand 15 years ago, the mobile phone manufacturer has spent time proving that its brand represents high quality and innovation. It has many customer service centres in shopping malls and has continued to gain acceptance. The company gained the second-largest market share of the overall smartphone market in the first quarter, said Mr Chanon.
To strengthen its market share, Oppo recently introduced the Reno10 Series 5G smartphone model. The mid-range-price model offers a "telephoto portrait camera" with the ability to create professional portrait focal lengths and ultra-clear portrait images.
"We will continue our journey to move beyond smartphones to a tech company, and increase revenue in Internet of Things devices like smartwatches and tablets," Mr Chanon added.
Thailand's smartphone sales declined by 20% year-on-year in the first quarter, compared to a global fall of 14.6% in the same period, mainly due to a sharp drop in the low-end smartphone segment, according to global IT research firm IDC.