CRI听力:Chinese Firms to Shine in MWC 2016

Apart from Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5, analysts are expecting new emerging Chinese players like Xiaomi and Huawei to pop out in this year's MWC in Barcelona, Spain.

Editor at Mobilegeeks Sascha Pallenberg says he is looking forward to Xiaomi's new flagship Mi5.

"Well, it is going to be the show of the flagships. So Samsung is launching its latest Galaxy S7, and the Galaxy S7 Edge. And we will see also the LG G5. Plus for the very first time, and I'm really excited about this, we will see a launch of the new Xiaomi, on the Wednesday of Mobile World Congress. This amazing, incredible, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi is going to launch the Xiaomi Mi5."

A latest survey shows that Xiaomi's global market share grew to some 6 percent last year.

Its Chinese peer Huawei has also climbed to the third biggest worldwide exporter of smartphones, after Samsung and Apple.

At the same time, Samsung's global market share has decreased to 21 percent from a previous mark of 32 percent.

The South Korean firm has also been elbowed out of the top three vendors in the Chinese market by competitors like Xiaomi and Huawei.

Pallenberg thinks that low prices are the reason for the emergence of Chinese firms.

"The real competition is happening in the market below 200 (US) dollars. And actually the real innovation, in my opinion, is happening there. Because right now, you can buy a Chinese phone at the price point of 200 dollars that delivers flagship device specs of devices that costs like seven, eight hundred dollars about two years ago. So, this is where the real disruption, where the real competition is happening."

Faced with cheap Chinese smartphones, companies like Samsung and LG are trying to stay competitive by introudcing new features, faster processors, and better cameras.

Amir Tamannai, editor at Giga Android, thinks they will also have to boast lower prices.

"For us as a customer it is a good thing, because the Chinese phones, as I said, they are good phones. So you can buy cheap phones which are just coming from China. And, if Samsung and other players react that would mean that devices of traditional manufacturers would go down in pricing too, which would be a good thing for the customer."

The Mobile World Congress runs from Monday to Thursday of next week.

More than 95 thousand attendees and 2 thousand exhibitors are expected to attend.

For CRI, this is Fei Fei.