Chinese mobile manufacturer Meizu has been developing smartphones since 2008, but this year the company achieved a stunning 350-percent increase in sales.
It reached 20 million sales for the year, a massive increase on the 4.4 million units sold last year. Meizu revealed the sales figures in a blog post detailing the company’s ambitions for the future.
While the sales figures are not enough to boost Meizu ahead of any of the big three Chinese mobile providers — Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi — it might be enough for the top five. Smaller firms like Oppo, ZTE, and Zopo have not released sales information yet, but Meizu’s massive surge in popularity might push it ahead of some of the lesser known brands.
Huawei announced 100 million sales in 2015 earlier in the month, and Xiaomi won’t be far off that record. Lenovo is further behind, with lower than expected mobile sales in China as it transitions its mobile business.
The Chinese mobile market is becoming more saturated, but that hasn’t affected Meizu. The company launched more phones than it ever has this year, a total of seven, including the Pro 5, MX5, and M2.
Meizu also started pushing its products heavily in India, the new market for budget manufacturers. Xiaomi, Samsung, and Huawei are all invested in India as the next mobile superpower, with a growing middle class that bears some similarity to China.
The company still operates primarily in Asia, though it does sell its smartphones in Europe as well. It currently has no operations in the U.S., though international phones do sometimes arrive on our shores.
Meizu hasn’t confirmed any plans to launch in the U.S. next year, but it wouldn’t be the first Chinese firm to do so. Huawei is reportedly planning a major push into the U.S. next year, with the Honor series and Mate 8 reportedly coming. Xiaomi also plans to begin operations in the U.S. next year.
