The Southeast Asian smartphone market rebounded in 2024 as vendors shipped 96.7 million units, an annual growth rate of 11%, snapping two years of decline.

For the first time, Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo led the Southeast Asian market, shipping 16.9 million units – a 14% annual increase – and capturing 18% market share. Samsung ranked second, with shipments declining by 9% to 16.6 million units, securing a 17% market share. Transsion and Xiaomi shared third place, each accounting for 16% of the market with 15.5 million units shipped. Notably, Transsion saw a 41% surge in annual shipments, while Xiaomi grew by 21%. Vivo placed fifth with a 13% market share, shipping 12.3 million units – an annual growth rate of 14%.

Canalys Analyst Le Xuan Chiew highlighted that Southeast Asia’s rebound outpaced the global average of 7%. However, despite this growth, the average selling price (ASP) declined due to price-conscious consumers. Samsung’s shipments dropped 9% year-on-year, yet it bucked the trend of falling ASPs, recording a 14% increase in this metric.

“The high-end smartphone market in Southeast Asia has gained momentum, driven by vendors expanding their distribution through new channels. Brands that invested in their channels during the 2023 slowdown are now capitalising on those efforts, ramping up marketing to attract a growing base of upgraders,” added Chiew.

The analyst noted that a vendor’s ranking by volume is “no longer a reliable measure of a brand’s market position” due to short product lifecycles, shipment lead times, and the frequent launch of new models each quarter. Instead, he pointed to value share, operational efficiency, and profitability as better indicators of market standing.

Might there be a day soon where the last major landmass on the Earth gets connected via subsea cable? Well, a project that would connect Chile with Antarctica is at least getting a feasibility study according to a release yesterday. … [visit site to read more]

Aramco, the giant Saudi Arabian integrated energy and chemical company, has been in the telecoms news recently after announcements of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AMD and plans for handset innovation with Qualcomm.

High-performance and adaptive computing specialist AMD has signed an MoU with Aramco relating to the evaluation and use of AMD’s products and technology to, among other things, accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) for specific industrial workloads.

Key areas of focus include leveraging high-performance AMD graphics processing unit (GPU) and central processor unit (CPU) capabilities, exploring industrial edge AI deployment, cloud strategy, AI/machine learning, predictive analytics, and data centre modernisation. Additional areas for potential collaboration include training on AMD ROCm (a software stack for graphics processing unit programming) as well as evaluating AMD AI capabilities for operational optimisation and digital twin technologies in the energy sector.

Aramco embarked on a digital transformation program in 2017, aiming to drive greater efficiency, accelerate innovation, build a digital-savvy workforce, and create new employment opportunities. The potential collaboration with AMD reflects Aramco’s aim to continue exploring technologies such as AI, big data, and predictive analytics to help make its operations more productive, efficient, and sustainable.

Meanwhile at the ongoing tech show LEAP 2025 in Saudi Arabia, Qualcomm and Aramco Digital, the digital and technology subsidiary of Aramco, have announced a collaboration to develop the world’s first AI-enabled industrial 5G smartphones with native support for the 450MHz spectrum.

As the partners explain, support for 450MHz spectrum allows 5G IoT devices, edge computing and end users to connect to a new generation of AI-enabled industrial applications. The initial focus will be on advanced industrial solutions for Aramco Digital’s parent company Aramco.

The new industrial smartphones will be powered by the Qualcomm QCM8550 and QCM6490 processors, which provide native support for 5G in 450MHz. These processors are designed to provide ubiquitous connectivity to intelligent edge devices, enabling superior communication and data transfer in industrial settings.

Four bits of infrastructure and related news from three continents: … [visit site to read more]

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Indus Towers, regularly in the news in recent months, has now hit the headlines with a major tower purchase in India.

Indus Towers will be acquiring a total of 16,100 telecom towers from national operator Bharti Airtel and regional service provider Bharti Hexacom for INR33.087 billion (about US$378 million) in a cash deal.

Bharti Airtel will sell 12,700 towers while Bharti Hexacom will sell 3,400 towers. Incorporated in 1995, Bharti Hexacom provides consumer mobile services, fixed-line telephone and broadband services in the Rajasthan and Northeastern regions of India.

Indus Towers said the proposed acquisition aligns with its core business line and it will increase the company’s market share and support its growth plans.

While the growth of towercos, and the increasing number of operators’ selling infrastructure to them, is nothing new, this deal is unusual in that it is a related party transaction; Bharti Airtel is the promoter, and the holding company of Indus Towers and Bharti Hexacom is a fellow subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.

India’s Economic Times news service quotes a regulatory filing from Indus Towers, which says: “The transaction is being done at arm’s length, based on an independent valuation report.” 

Indus has a pan-India presence with 234,643 towers and 386,819 co-locations at the end of last year. Indus has been reported as saying: “In line with the company’s strategic priority of increasing its market share, the said acquisition will help the company add more towers to its portfolio, hence improving its market share.”

The deal is expected to be completed by March 31 this year. 

Indus made headlines last year in a completely different context when multinational telecommunications company Vodafone Group sold off parts of its share in the company over 2024. This process culminated in the sale, in December of that year of its remaining 3% stake in Indus Towers for US$300 million to help reduce its debt pile.

Ecobank Group, a private pan-African financial services group, and Chinese company XTransfer, a cross-border trade payment platform, have signed what they call a landmark memorandum of understanding of cooperation (MoU) to roll out comprehensive cross-border financial services to Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in foreign trade.

The partners suggest that this collaboration will further facilitate trade between China and African countries, pointing out that in 2023, bilateral trade reached a record US$282 billion. From January to November 2024, China’s exports to Africa totalled US$160 billion, a 1.4% increase from the previous year, while imports from Africa reached US$107 billion, marking a substantial rise of 6.6%.

However, they add, despite this growth, African SMEs engaged in foreign trade face numerous challenges related to cross-border payments and fund collections. These challenges include difficulties in opening accounts with traditional banks, a high risk of funds being frozen, difficulties in foreign exchange and related losses, lengthy remittance times and high remittance costs.

Hence the partnership between XTransfer and Ecobank Group, which, they say, will foster collaboration between both parties to provide comprehensive cross-border payment solutions for African SMEs’ foreign trade.

In particular, the partnership will facilitate trade between SMEs in China and African countries and also streamline foreign trade transactions between African companies and their global partners. XTransfer will leverage Ecobank’s extensive network across Africa, enabling its Chinese clients to collect funds in local African currencies while assisting African SMEs in making payments in their local currencies to negate foreign exchange issues.

Jeremy Awori, CEO Ecobank Group, explains: “This partnership builds on our established strategy, which includes a representative office in China and a dedicated China desk. By integrating XTransfer’s cutting-edge solutions with our pan-African payment platform, we simplify payments, reduce transaction costs, and enable African businesses to thrive in global trade.”

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Here is a series of news bytes covering regional infrastructure expansion projects from this week: … [visit site to read more]

Interesting news items from Europe, southeast Asia, and the Middle East from the past several days: … [visit site to read more]