In March of this year a list of the world’s top phone vendors was published. Twelve names were on it, and of those a stunning eight were Chinese.
Far from the knock-off merchants they have so often been categorised as, companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and more have been almost unstoppable in their ascendance.
But what does this mean for consumers in the West? On the surface of it, not a great deal. These manufacturers have tended to focus almost exclusively on China and other emerging markets, particularly India.
For various reasons many of them have opted to avoid the West almost entirely, only dipping their toes in every now and then.
