Chinese Companies Eyeing Europe
A large number of Chinese ICT companies are expected to participate in this year’s IFA, which kicks off on Sep. 6 in Berlin, in an attempt to expand their markets in Europe instead of the United States with the U.S.-China trade war going on.
A total of 1,895 companies have applied for participation in the consumer electronics show so far, including 787 Chinese. The others include 90 South Korean, 99 American and 340 German companies.
The Chinese companies are expected to present a number of new products there. Those include Huawei’s latest in-house Kirin 990 chipset. Huawei’s flagship Mate 30, which is scheduled to be released this month, is expected to come with the 5G mobile processor.
Chinese TV manufacturer TCL is going to unveil a foldable phone prototype at the show before releasing its first foldable phone in the third quarter of next year. TCL’s exhibits at the show also include a smartphone equipped with triple rear cameras. Named T1, the phone is likely to become the first smartphone brand of the Blackberry and Alcatel phone manufacturer.
As mentioned above, Chinese ICT companies’ active participation in this year’s IFA has to do with the trade war and they are regarding Europe as an alternative market. Market research firm Canalys recently reported that Huawei’s and Xiaomi’s smartphone market shares in Europe were 18.8 percent and 9.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, respectively. They came in second and fourth behind Samsung Electronics, which took up 40.6 percent of the market.