‘The premium market is dominated by two brands; I believe consumers would be interested in a third’: Oppo’s European CEO has a plan for narrowing the smartphone sales gap with Apple and Samsung — and chatbots like ChatGPT could hold the key
Recent data published by Counterpoint Research paints a bleak picture of the smartphone industry as it stands today.
Q3 2026 (that’s the period between July and September) marked the lowest Q3 for smartphone sales in 14 years, with challenger brands like Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo all experiencing declines in market share versus the same period in 2025.
Skyrocketing component costs have wreaked havoc on the budget and mid-range tiers, while consumers are holding onto their devices for longer and have become more discerning in how and where they spend their money.
What, then, are growth-hungry smartphone manufacturers to do? Oppo, for its part, plans to pursue an aggressive premiumization strategy in Europe.
“The European premium market is dominated by two brands,” Elvis Zhou, CEO of Oppo Europe, explained to TechRadar in a recent roundtable interview. “I believe local European consumers would be interested in a third, good option.”
Zhou didn’t...
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