A new study by OMDIA that covers the Chinese ODM industry reveals how the ODMs now enjoy lion share of design and production of smartphones for nearly all manufacturers. This is especially true for the low-end and mid-range smartphone models and holds true for Nokia, Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Xiaomi and others.
Currently, the top 10 OEMs (except Apple and Vivo) have all cooperated with ODMs to develop low- and midend smartphones and mobile phones in the ecological chain. In the low-end smartphone market, ODMs Wingtech and Huaqin have obvious advantages in R&D capabilities, cost
control, and manufacturing.
Nokia seems to have started late but now may be depending much more on ODMs for the manufacturing and supply of its smartphones. As mentioned in the report, ODMs offer obvious advantage in terms of R&D and manufacturing costs in a market that has become increasingly saturated.
LG and Nokia’s new projects began mass production in 2H19; therefore, shipments contributed less in 2019. Tinno shipped 6.5 million smartphones in 2019; shipments of its Wiko brand and the volume of its customer project shipments in the overseas markets both fell sharply. As a result, it started participating in new Moto projects in 2019, which began shipping in 2H19. ODMs have advantages in cost control, and the top three ODMs provide very good support to customers in R&D and the supply chain. In 2020, Samsung, OPPO, LG, Nokia, and other customers will continue to increase their outsourcing projects. LG and Nokia are fully seeking cooperation with mobile phone ODMs. The total increase is estimated to be 50 million units in 2020. New projects from Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and OPPO will continue to focus on Wingtech, Huaqin, and Longcheer while LG, Nokia, and Lenovo will Collaborate with Chino and Tinno; the top three ODM suppliers will focus on shipping smartphones.
This is precisely why Nokia Mobile has depended upon timely security and OS updates as the key differentiator along with stricter quality control.
