Three large mobile assemblers dominate the world market, and all three are Chinese

n the mobile market, some companies are the ones that sell their brand’s devices, and others (very different) are the ones that manufacture the mobile phones for those brands. They are companies that we can call mobile phone assemblers, and that work for all brands.

In general, we all know that the majority of mobile phones are manufactured in China, but what few people know is the reality of the great dominance exercised by three Chinese manufacturers that assemble more than 75% of all mobile phones sold in the world.

In the photo below you can see the summary offered by Counterpoint Research of the mobile phones that were manufactured in the years 2022 and 2023 worldwide.

It can be seen that two of them (Huaqin and Longcheer) manufacture almost 28%, and another (Ingtec) almost 20%. And since there are other smaller Chinese companies in that market, between them they assemble more than 90% of the mobile phones sold in the world.

And the question that arises for me is: does this make sense?

This happens because it is cheaper for companies that design mobile phones to outsource their assembly, and they outsource it at the lowest price, but the time has come when all of them are in the hands of these three Chinese companies. And some officials should think about what could happen if a crisis occurs in China, as already happened with Covid.

I think it is good to collaborate between companies and countries, but it is not good to be in someone’s hands. And we have to think that what is considered the cheapest thing can sometimes result very expensive.

Price is a fundamental factor of any product, but it is not the only one. And we forget that when we buy something, because we all want it to be as cheap as possible can result in costing us very dearly.

This happens when we only look at the short term and do not learn from past mistakes.