Established mobile handset makers are being forced to make up ground as so-called ‘no brand vendors’ muscle their way into emerging markets.
According to research conducted by Gartner, there is a surge of no-brand manufacturers hailing from China that are expanding their reaches into Africa, India, Latin America and Russia.
Gartner says that the growth in smartphone sales has pushed third-quarter sales of no-brand mobile sales to 35pc, forecasting an overall growth of 30pc for 2010.
Smartphone market
LG and Nokia are among those suffering from the emergence of no-brand vendors, and will watch with interest whether the no-brand vendors aggressively target the smartphone market – with both companies struggling to maintain their market share from previous years.
Gartner estimates sales of mobiles made by no-brand vendors rose to 138 million handsets from 50 million last year.
