When it comes to Android smartphones, the Chiense market has become not just an important one, but has become something very different to the way that we do things here in the West. Not only is there no Google presence in China, but there’s a myriad of different app stores, more brands to choose from than there is over here in the West, and a whole lot more going on in general. The one defining characteristic of devices from China is often the low price that they’re sold for, which is what makes devices from Xiaomi and now LeEco popular. As these brands start to become more known in the West and ship more units across the world, so too, are their supply chains changing.
As the Chinese market becomes larger and larger, it’s perhaps inevitable that Chinese manufacturers are now starting to purchase supplies from their local suppliers, rather than looking further afield. LCD and OLED suppliers such as BOE Technology, Truly Optoelectronics and Tianma Micro-electronics have increased their shipments throughout 2016, while more Chinese vendors such as AUO and Innolux are all set to increase shipments to Chinese smartphone manufacturers throughout 2017, too. As for the silicon inside of our devices, Taiwan Semiconductor, often referred to as TSMC, is apparently starting to produce the upcoming Snapdragon 830 and also produces a lot of chips for China’s MediaTek, which give lower-end and more affordable devices some much-needed oomph. HiSilicon Technologies, a subsidiary of Huawei that designs and makes their own chips, which recently announced the world’s fastest mobile chip, is also set to increase shipments next year, too.
As Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE and LeEco start to turn their attention to sales in the West, it’s no wonder that these Chinese firms are eager to turn to cheaper and more reliable sources of displays and processors, which should no doubt please the Chinese economy. As Samsung faces more issues from their recent Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, which was thought to be down to Korean-made batteries, it looks as if the smartphone future for China overall is a bright one.