A mobile brand that is doing well in Latin America but is unknown in the rest of the world

While every year Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi compete for the title of the company that ships the most smartphones in the world, there is a company that silently defeats the BBK group consisting of brands such as Vivo, OnePlus, Oppo or Realme and others. This is Transsion Holding, a Chinese company selling devices under the brand Techno Mobile.

Tecno Mobile’s presence in Europe is virtually non-existent. But in markets like Latin America, the company behind this mobile brand is growing by leaps and bounds. According to Canalys, Transsion shipped 3 million smartphones to the Latin American market in the third quarter of 2023.. This is an increase of 159% compared to the same period last year, which means that the company 10% market sharejust below Samsung, Motorola and Xiaomi.

Globally, this mobile brand is also growing significantly and It is already the fourth company that sells the most smartphones. Its market share is 9%. Once again it lags behind Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi and is already superior to the BBK group.

Transsion, the company behind Tecno Mobile

The truth is that Transsion Holdings is not a new manufacturer. The company was founded in 2006, although years later it had no impact. In fact, in 2017, Transsion entered Africa and became the largest manufacturer in the region with its brands Itel, Infinix and Tecno Mobile; mainly due to the strategy that the company has implemented in this market, focusing on dual-SIM smartphones with a front camera optimized for dark skin tones.

Transsion currently operates in major emerging markets such as Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Latin America, with a total of 70 countries and a much larger smartphone catalog than brands like Oppo or Vivo. Under the Tecno brand alone, the company has several high-end mobile phones, dozens of mid- and low-end mobile phones, and two foldable phones: one is a flip phone type similar to the Galaxy Z Flip and the other is a flip phone. book type" similar to the Galaxy Z Fold.

Apart from mobile phones, Transsion also sells products under the Tecno brand. computers, headphones and other devices for the connected home. From Hypertext We were able to see the company's stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​where all the products were presented: most of them with good characteristics. Others are somewhat more advanced, including a prototype mobile phone with a sliding screen and a robot dog very similar to Xiaomi's robot.

Cheap mobile phones with designs that are not suitable for all markets.

The strategy of this manufacturer is very similar to what companies such as Xiaomi used in their time: strategy launch cheap mobile phones with good specifications. Transsion also seems to have learned very well what works in each specific market, as each Latin American country where it is present has a different model as its flagship. In fact, in regions such as Argentina, the catalog is extremely small compared to all the models that the company sells in other markets.

Another interesting thing about Tecno is the design of the mobile phones: most of them are very flashy, with colors, LED lights, oddly shaped camera modules, etc. This is what markets like Latin America or Asia like, but in Europe, doesn't seem to be generating much interest, as a brand representative commented to this publication after our visit to the stand during MWC.