LeEco to become 11th largest smartphone vendor: Strategy Analytics

LeEco Le Max 2LeEco will ship 25 million smartphones and become the eleventh largest smartphone vendor worldwide in 2016, says Strategy Analytics.

The report said LeEco is an emerging threat to mass-market smartphone rivals such as Alcatel, Huawei and Samsung.

LeEco is currently the world’s fastest-growing major smartphone player, due to cost-competitive hardware, improving distribution, and a growing ecosystem of media content.

The chart below by Strategy Analytics indicates that LeEco will increase its smartphone shipments to 25 million in 2016 from 3.9 million in 2015.

On the other hand, LeEco will enhance its smartphone market share to 1.7 percent from 0.3 percent globally.

The report on global smartphone market says  LeEco is currently the world’s fastest-growing major smartphone vendor, due to cost-competitive hardware, improving distribution, and a growing ecosystem of media content.

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units)

2015 2016
LeEco 3.9 25.0
Others 1436.3 1449.1
Total 1440.2 1474.1
Global Smartphone Vendor Marketshare (%) 2015 2016
LeEco 0.3% 1.7%
Others 99.7% 98.3%
Total 100.0% 100.0%

“We forecast LeEco to ship 25.0 million smartphones worldwide in 2016, rising an impressive 541 percent from 3.9 million in 2015,” said Linda Sui, director at Strategy Analytics.

LeEco first entered the global smartphone market in 2015. Its Le 1S and Le 2 flagship smartphone models have proven wildly popular in China and formed the bedrock of its soaring worldwide growth. LeEco has expanded into India in 2016 and it is eyeing the United States as a next growth engine for its smartphones through 2017.

LeEco is in the process of building a multi-platform ecosystem, using smartphones, smart TVs and other hardware products to distribute its growing media portfolio. LeEco is sometimes called the Netflix of China, due to its compelling range of local Chinese video and other content.

It remains to be seen whether LeEco can replicate its China success across the US, India or elsewhere, due to local tastes or copyright barriers. LeEco is clearly growing at a very rapid rate and the vendor is an emerging threat to mass-market smartphone rivals such as Alcatel, Huawei and Samsung.

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