China’s phone makers take on giants

APPLE, SAMSUNG

smartphones, according to the State Intellectual Property Office. Of those, Oppo, Huawei and Xiaomi filed close to 12,000 applications, the data show.

“In terms of technology and innovation, Chinese players are very close to industry leaders like Samsung,” said Kitty Fok, a research director at IDC China. “China’s gigantic mobile Internet market helped to boost online services, which require hardware with better performance. Many local players caught the opportunity to shake off the copycat label.”

Leading the charge is Guangdong Oppo Electronics Co., which made features like rapid charging, lowlight photography and 6-gigabyte memory standard (the iPhone still lacks quick-charging). The current Chinese market leader is focusing its energies on the camera, targeting selfie-crazy youths as well as amateur snappers.

Oppo unveiled what it calls its most advanced mobile photography technology yet. Its “go five times further” Barcelona tag line referred to an optical zoom technique that combines telephoto and wide-angle lenses and a specially designed prism with software to achieve a 5x zoom effect.

Huawei — No. 3 worldwide after Samsung and Apple — also aimed to make a splash in Barcelona with its marquee P10. The company unveiled one of the first dual-camera smartphones with an organic light-emitting diode screen a year ago — thus stealing a march on Apple, which is said to be adopting the next-generation displays only later this year. This week, the Shenzhen-based company touted an even more advanced gadget, a roughly US$700 device capable of identifying faces and adjusting angles and lighting on the fly.

Huawei’s shown no lack of confidence: It vowed last year to displace Apple and Samsung from the global top in five years. The firm raised eyebrows when it sued Samsung in the U.S. and China for patent infringement. Samsung has counter-sued.

Unusually for a Chinese brand, it’s also exhibited marketing savvy, teaming with Leica and enlisting Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson to plug devices. This week, it featured the storied camera-maker again, alongside colour pioneer Pantone and GoPro, whose mobile editing app will come preinstalled on the P10.

Even Xiaomi, which once topped Chinese sales by undercutting the competition and building an online user community, is going upmarket. In October, it showed off the Mi MIX concept phone, developed with famed designer Philippe Starck, featuring a ceramic body and bezel-less screen. It may go for 3,999 yuan (US$582) when it debuts.

Xiaomi will this week showcase the first phones using its “Pinecone” chipsets, foregoing those from Qualcomm Inc. and Mediatek Inc. It will join a select club that includes Huawei, Apple and Samsung.