Efforts by China-based smartphone vendors to push sales through online trading is likely to result in significant impacts on sales volumes and vendor rankings in the China market in 2014 and beyond, according to industry watchers in Taiwan.
Huawei and Coolpad have been ramping sales of their secondary brands, the Honor and Great God, respectively, through the Internet, while Gionee and K-Touch have also entered the competition by creating IUNI and nibiru as their respective secondary brands.
Xiaomi Technology, which has pioneered online sales in China, along with Huawei and Coolpad have been enjoying strong sales via the Internet recently, squeezing market share of other brands, including Lenovo and ZTE, said the watchers.
Although ZTE has also launched a secondary brand, the Zubia, the vendor has yet to make strong efforts to push sales through the Internet, the observers noted.
The ratios of online sales of major vendors, with the exception of Xiaomi, are likely to ramp up to 20-30% by the end of 2014 from 10-20% currently, the sources estimated, adding that Xiaomi is currently generating over 70% of its revenues through e-commerce.
Three models that have received much attention in China recently are Meizu's MX3, Huawei's Honor 3C and Coolpad's Great God F1
