2018 was lit
Only a few days separate us from 2019, and before the year closes out, let’s take a look back at five big tech stories that shaped the local tech scene. 2018 has been a crazy year, both for
1) The return of bang-for-the-buck brands
2018 saw the return of two, supposedly e-commerce only brands defeated by the vagaries of the local market. Both Honor and Xiaomi silently pulled out of the country in 2016, leaving scores of disappointed fans.
Both made a triumphant return this year, with Xiaomi opening its first authorized Mi Store in Trinoma, which was joined by other locations soon after. Armed with a new strategy and a willingness to open physical locations to conform to the needs of the market, Xiaomi is quickly racking up impressive sales numbers nationwide.
Honor meanwhile, is now unshackled by its obligations to its mother brand. Its pullout in 2016 was because of Huawei’s fears of the brand cannibalizing sales of its main smartphone line. While cannibalization fears remain, the biggest change this year is that Huawei simply doesn’t care anymore, giving the brand free reign to run its operations as it sees fit, independent from the folks running Huawei Philippines.
2) The arrival of affordable flagship killers
The term “Flagship Killer” has more or less belonged to OnePlus thanks to the hi-spec and low price strategy that they’ve been employing in their flagships. But thanks to rising costs in manufacturing, the company’s offerings weren’t as affordable as previous years.
Their competitors were quick to capitalize on that oversight, with Xiaomi, Honor, and ASUS (yes, ASUS) releasing phones that were cheaper than what OnePlus came up with. 2018 also marked the arrival of the ultimate flagship killer, a phone that had absolutely no right to exist at the price point it plays in – the Pocophone F1.
3) Third telco finally materializes
After years of waiting, rumors and, intrigue, the Philippines finally has a third telco that is poised to challenge the duopoly of PLDT and Globe. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) officially crowned the Mislatel Consortium as our official third telco after its competitors were unceremoniously disqualified during the public bidding process.
The Mislatel Consortium, headed by Davao-based CEO Dennis Uy is a combination of his Udenna Corporation and Chelsea Logistics Holding Corp, as well as Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company and state-owned China Telecom.
4) Cherry Mobile is Finally Dethroned From Top Spot
Local brand Cherry Mobile has enjoyed top billing in the Philippines for quite a while, sitting on the #1 spot in the smartphone sales charts. But that changed in Q3 of 2018 when Canalys declared Chinese brand OPPO as the top brand in the Philippines.
The mere fact that Cherry Mobile held onto that spot for so long is pretty incredible to say the least, especially when you consider that other local brands in other countries have pretty much collapsed under the assault of Chinese brands like OPPO and Xiaomi. But don’t count Cherry Mobile out yet – there’s still plenty of fight left in the Pinoy brand.
5) Huawei finally becomes a tech leader
Chinese giant Huawei is almost at the top of the tech ladder, surpassing tech giant Apple to become the second largest smartphone brand in the world – all without the help of the US market.
By the end of this year, the Chinese company will have shipped around 200 million smartphones from both their main brand and their Honor sub-brand, capping off a stellar year where the company has managed to outshine its competition when it comes to innovation.
Its P20 Pro, for example, is still the top dog in DXoMark, the leading imaging benchmark used for judging image quality. Apple’s iPhone XS Max is a solid four points behind it, despite being introduced later this year compared to the the 9 month-old smartphone.
Huawei’s influence in smartphone design is also apparent with all the color-shifting smartphone back panels we’ve been seeing in other companies. That started with the Twilight Color option in the P20 Pro, and because of that we’ve been seeing extremely interesting color variations in glass-backed phones this year.
