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Nearly 500 Smartphone Brands Have Left the Market Since 2017 (techspot.com) 42

How many smartphone brands do you think have left the market since 2017? The likes of LG probably come to mind, then there are the many local, lesser-known brands. Maybe fifty, or one hundred? The actual figure is, astoundingly, nearly 500. TechSpot: Counterpoint Research's analysis shows that at its peak in 2017, there were more than 700 smartphone brands contributing to the 1.5 billion units sold annually. In 2023, that number is down by a third to almost 250. Nearly all of those brands that have shuttered over the last five years were local ones found in locations such as India, the Middle East, Africa, China, Japan, and South Korea. The number of global brands such as Samsung has remained consistent at over 30.

Counterpoint Research highlights several reasons behind the shrinking number of brands over the last seven years. The pandemic and component shortages that began in 2020 had a massive impact, while the global economic slowdown following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has caused many smaller smartphone companies to shutter. The local brands have also been dealing with other factors killing off their businesses. More people are holding onto their devices for longer before upgrading, cheaper phones are improving in quality all the time, there's a maturing user base, we've seen technology transitions such as that from 4G to 5G, and a handful of big brands are holding on to more of the market.

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Nearly 500 Smartphone Brands Have Left the Market Since 2017

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    You're telling me Leagoo isn't selling phones anymore!

  • 700 down by a third is close to 460, not 250. Down to a third is closer to 250. Where are the editors?
  • by Virtucon ( 127420 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @11:14AM (#63869101)

    Are we saying we need to subsidize cell phone manufacturers? Considering what a high-end phone costs these days, I think if someone could make a reliable, 4/5G phone with no extra crap on it and a replaceable battery for a decent price we'd be beating a path to their door. Unfortunately, it looks like people like their phone to be an extension of their jewelry and how much it costs goes to the selection. Just shop around and stop looking at Samsung or Apple first.

    I'm in the market for a new one and I've been looking at these with USB-C and removable batteries.

    Fairphone - Fairphone is a Dutch company that makes sustainable and ethical smartphones. All their phones have removable batteries and USB-C for charging and data transfer. about $800US
    Cat - Cat is a brand of rugged smartphones made by Bullitt Group. Some of their phones, such as the Cat S62 Pro, have removable batteries and USB-C ports. They're marketed through Caterpillar, about $700US

    The Fairphone has updates through 2031 and IMO looks like the better of the two.

    • For me personally I've let go of the removable battery being a make or break for that same reason, the options toady are just too limited, hopefullt the new EU law will expand the swappable battery options out there.

      Without that requirement though the Pixel "A" line like 6A, 7A hit every other mark since it's as stock a version of Android (if you consider the inclusion of Google services as stock of course) has good performance, good battery life, long update support, excellent camera and you can usually fi

      • I've thought about the Pixel but support in terms of O/S upgrades etc. has me bugged with Google only supporting 3 years of updates. At that rate, I'd need to buy three phones vs. the Fairphone whose software support is 8 years.

        Still, if I were comparing the 7a to a Samsung S23 it's a bargain just on price.

        • I think some of the Pixel's in the past have gotten a full OS update past their expiration date but yeah, no guarantee. For me if the phone is still working strong after 4 years I would consider it bonus time so I am not too perturbed about getting the latest update.

          On the other hand it will be interesting to see how that 8 year support plays out. Google has the benefit of controlling their hardware for those updates whereas Fairphone has to rely on Google not making a new major version that can actually

          • it's funny you mention Unihertz. I looked at the Tank 2 model and it definitely has some odd features. It may be worth the gamble though and try it.

            • by narcc ( 412956 )

              I have a Unihertz Titan Pocket. It's ugly and thick, but the battery lasts for ages. I think nothing of leaving the house at 30%. The Tank, as I understand, puts that to shame. For $300, it's an not much of a gamble. I'll bet you could get most of that back on eBay in the worst case.

              The only thing I'd worry about is the size. My Titan Pocket is an embarrassingly bulky16.8mm, but it's dainty and delicate compared to the Tank at 23.9mm. That's almost a full inch! Even Zack Morris would think twice about

      • by guruevi ( 827432 )

        Why do you need a removable battery in the first place? I have a 7 year old iPhone, the battery is at 70% life, it still operates throughout a full day. It will still get OS updates and security updates for respectively at least 2 and 4 years, so I intend on keeping that device.

        If you need to replace a battery so much you need it removable, perhaps you need a better manufacturer.

        • Batteries in cell phones used to run down and wear out a lot quicker than today so I think it's partly some carryover from those days. Older phones I had wouldn't even last a day after about 18 months of normal use so there is a fear of having to be faced with that choice of having a costly repair or just replacing the phone for just the battery.

          Some people put in a lot of use to their phones and want the ability to go back to 100% within a couple minutes and not have to strap a battery and wait for it to

          • by guruevi ( 827432 )

            Sure, but that hasn't been the case in about 10-15 years since we started using Lithium batteries. The last dumb-phone I had already was closed in battery and never needed to replace it in its lifespan, the phone before that was a replaceable NiMH but after about a year I replaced it with a Lithium battery.

            Battery charge speed is nearly unaffected by aging, if your battery isn't charging as quickly as you think it was in the beginning, your phone is doing 'stuff'. I know on Android, this is a problem with m

            • My Nexus 5 is on its 3rd battery (and final -- too many other components are beginning to fail) , I replaced it every time it didn't survive 10 hours just lying on a table not plugged in. So either the batteries were from just before the development you described, or its still possibly an issue...
              An iPhone SE (1st gen) in the household just got a battery replacement procedure, because it wouldn't last 5 hours of normal usage.

              My experience disagrees with your assessment...

              • by guruevi ( 827432 )

                A battery failure every 3 years on the Nexus? That's a problem with shitty manufacturing.

                The iPhone SE is 7 years old on the other hand, not sure what you do or what 'normal usage' is in your case, I found out if you put it in low power mode, it will last a bit longer and disable any push notifications, which also drains quickly. I figured that out after I left my phone in the car on a camping trip which was out of any reception and 3 days later it was still at 20% charge, when connected to the network(s) a

              • Sounds like an Android problem, my iPhone 8 with its original battery from when it came out still has 80% of the battery left according to Battery Health data, I don't even charge it every night. I've always had "Optimized battery charging" feature on which avoids charging up the battery all the way until right before it thinks you're about to unplug it in the morning.
        • Why does your car need a removable battery? Why does the hood open? Just buy a new car instead of replacing an inexpensive wear item.
          • by guruevi ( 827432 )

            Because the battery in your car is not a Lithium battery. Note the Tesla batteries are not removable by popping open the hood.

      • For me personally I've let go of the removable battery being a make or break for the simple reason that batteries actually last pretty fucking well these days. 6 years later my iPhone 8 still has 80% of its original capacity, the useful life of this device isn't going to be limited by the battery.
    • Are we saying we need to subsidize cell phone manufacturers?

      No I think the point is that smart phones are becoming more complex to manufacture and that smaller companies simply cannot make them at a decent profit.

      Considering what a high-end phone costs these days, I think if someone could make a reliable, 4/5G phone with no extra crap on it and a replaceable battery for a decent price we'd be beating a path to their door.

      I think you overestimate the term "we". Nothing is really stopping a manufacturer from doing that today. I suspect manufacturers do not do that because there is only a small demand.

      Unfortunately, it looks like people like their phone to be an extension of their jewelry and how much it costs goes to the selection. Just shop around and stop looking at Samsung or Apple first.

      Again, people can buy phones other than Samsung and Apple. Easily. For example Google Pixel phones are good. But Samsung and Apple are the two largest brands for a reason. If you

    • there aren't anti-trust violations going on. Sure, the industry is new and severe market contractions aren't impossible, but we ought to have more "beat cops" on the anti-trust streets.

      Capitalism w/o competition is just feudalism with more steps.
    • by guruevi ( 827432 )

      The Fairphone is promising updates to 2028, they are going to attempt to go to 2031 with security updates, but for that they would need to hire a developer. They are currently reliant on the manufacturer and Google to give them software, as such they have previously cancelled their promises and have suddenly dropped support for both the FP1 and FP3. Be wary about these greenwash companies.

    • I think if someone could make a reliable, 4/5G phone with no extra crap on it and a replaceable battery for a decent price we'd be beating a path to their door.

      No you wouldn't. It's a fantasy that most people care about that crap. There's a reason major flagship phones full of features without things like replaceable batteries dominate the market while Cat and Fairphone continue to prod along in relative obscurity.

      That's also before you get to people who don't see a "non-replacable" battery as a barrier to actually replacing the battery (it's really not that hard and most people who don't suffer from Parkinson's can do it) and realise that the non-replacable batte

    • I was pleased to hear about the removable battery you mentioned. Seems it's not though per manufacturer's website. "BATTERY: Capacity: 4000mAh non-removable Type: Non removable Lithium Ion"
  • by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @11:14AM (#63869103) Journal
    I'd be curious about how much actual change this represents.

    Were these 500 outfits actually doing handset design and manufacture and such; or were they just badge-engineering a logo and maybe a bootsplash and some shovelware onto the assorted ODM generics that you can have stamped out with your colors assuming you meet the minimum order quantity?

    500 actual design and manufacture outfits folding would be news; 500 random 'brands' inserting themselves and a logo from fivver onto a much smaller set of ODMs is vastly less interesting.
    • Like many markets, I feel there is more homogenization as it matures. Ten years ago, there was probably way more variety but things like the OS and feature differences are becoming minor and not relevant. For example, the flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200MP camera. Yes that is way more the Google Pixel 7 Pro's 48MP camera . . . but in how many situations is the 150MP difference relevant for the average consumer? When the Google Pixel first came out in 2016, there was/is a difference between 8MP and 12MP
      • And likely both of those cameras produce 12MP pictures regardless of the sensor size. (I have a pixel with a 50MP camera, it saves at 12MP) These are actually different strategies for doing high zoom. You can make the optics higher magnification or you can make the sensor higher resolution and only use the middle of it. Or you can do a little bit of both, which is what the pixel does - a 48MP sensor with a 5x zoom makes for a overall 10x zoom using only the center 12 MP of the sensor - which is the size
      • Hopefully some brands will once again decide to differentiate themselves based on useful features rather than "my number is bigger than yours". Removable batteries, headphone jacks, dual SIM, radio tuner (in an *absurd* move, many phones have these but disable them even in flagship class), IR blaster (tons of home electronics still use IR remotes)... I remember when you usually had to sacrifice but one of those. Now you're hard pressed to find a device with any two. Bring back the features!
        • I would say there is a reason those features do not exist anymore. Sorry but things like removable batteries are not coming back.
  • Sure, many brands left but the market is pretty much android and ios devices

    The big issue is software updates though

  • by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Friday September 22, 2023 @12:17PM (#63869365) Homepage
    Anyone can outsource a phone and slap their brand name on it. Maybe use a metric that means anything at all.
  • by awwshit ( 6214476 )

    I'll bet 100% of them are Android phones, so not much differentiation. No wonder.

    Really hard to compete when you are starting from scratch and have to make an OS or UI and not just hardware.

  • I used to replace my (exclusively Android) phone every couple of years but my most recent one lasted 4 years before; security and OS updates stopped, modern apps were lagging, and battery life dwindled. And that phone was a previous generation refurb. I recently bought a refurb Pixel 6A for about $260 and expect it to last another 4 years.

  • How many of these brands were just different nameplates on the same cheap OEM phone, or the cheapest possible implementation of the chipset manufacturer's reference design?
  • "while the global economic slowdown following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022"

    That's the first time I've heard someone directly link these two event together. I mean sure, there's probably some relation, but I hardly think one cause the other or vice-versa.

  • Essentially, the shakeout has reduced the competition to just three companies internationally: Apple, Samsung and _maybe_ Google (through its Pixel line). These three companies survived not only from better marketing, but also the fact all three now support the phone with operating system updates for at least three years. Google's unwillingness to offer Google Mail, Google Maps, YouTube and Chrome to Microsoft pretty much killed Windows 10 Mobile (which was too bad because Windows 10 Mobile was potentially

  • - deck of cards-ish form factor that's not comfortable in a pocket on a hot day
    - year on year decreasing odds of a 3.5mm jack
    - battery is not removable but not so the phone can have a waterproofing rating, more of a "because fuck you, that's why" reason
    - somewhere between unrepairable and will-call-in-a-hoax-terrorist-threat-in-to-police-if-you-attempt-to-open-it
    - because software support if crap you're pressured to buy one every few years
    - costs like a used car, works like an ankle monitor for monitoring t

  • They took away the removable battery, and I only sometimes am screwed by this. Well, I can share my information and install software to listen to music instead of using the FM radio. If there is a natural disaster, I'll just access cellular or wifi while my battery dies. Apple's phones don't have feature X, and those sheeple buy it, so I guess it's neat that my phone is thin with a glass back. They told me this makes it more waterproof. If my phone dies, I can drive somewhere or send it off to have some
  • I loved my Blackberry KeyOne. A handheld Bluetooth keyboard (they do 2.4 GHz via dongle too) is just what the doctor ordered if I'm in the car and need to type more than usual. They are also great for situations when I might otherwise turn on a laptop. For that matter, my Thinkpad wiress keyboard is another unsung here, with its track point nub.

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