Chinese companies occupied the top four spots in the list of top ten phone manufacturers in Pakistan in 2022, as per the latest statistics from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), according to a report published by Gwadar Pro. Chinese companies have assembled/manufactured a major portion of 21.94 million phones locally produced in Pakistan in 2022.  Itel Mobile Pakistan remained the country’s top mobile phone manufacturer for the second consecutive year in 2022 with 3.03 million units. In 2022, the company locally assembled/manufactured 3.03 million sets whereas the same Chinese company assembled/manufactured 4.40 million units in 2021. In 2020, the firm was 9th in the list of top ten manufacturers with 0.34 million mobile sets; however, in 2021 it topped the list of local manufacturers and retained its position in 2022.

As per the PTA statistics, China’s VGO TEL has retained its second position in the list of ten mobile manufacturers in 2022 with 2.40 million mobile phone sets. VGO TEL had assembled/manufactured 3.17 million mobile phone sets in 2021 while in 2020 the company stood third with 1.63 million sets. In 2022, China’s Vivo jumped to third position pushing Infinix, another Chinese company, from 3rd to 4th position. In 2022, Vivo has assembled/manufactured over 1.72 million mobile phones while Infinix is standing with 172 million (the margin of difference is very little; however, Vivo stands third). In 2021, Infinix was 3rd with 3.00 million phone sets while Vivo had assembled/manufactured 2.76 million phones. China’s Tecno mobile company has slipped from its 5th position in 2021 to 8th position in 2022. Chinese smartphone giant OPPO has also emerged as the 6th largest mobile phone maker in Pakistan during 2022 by assembling/manufacturing 1.34 million mobile phones.

Similarly, Finland’s Nokia and South Korea’s Samsung rank  the 5th and 7th mobile phone brands in the list of top ten mobile phone manufacturers in 2022. Nokia and Samsung assembled/manufactured 1.46 million and 1.19 million phone sets respectively. OPPO, Nokia, and Samsung were not included in the list of top ten phone manufacturers in 2021. According to PTA, at least 21.94 million phone sets were assembled/manufactured in Pakistan while 1.53 million mobile phones were commercially imported by the country. In 2021, the number of locally assembled/manufactured phone sets was 24.66 million while the country commercially imported 10.26 million sets.  Due to growing local manufacturing, the number of commercially import sets has drastically come down i.e. in 2020, Pakistan imported 24.51 million phone sets which came down to a mere 1.53 million in 2022.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP