This company sells more phones than Google, but you've likely never heard of it

While we can all comfortably name the top two players in the global smartphone market — it’s Samsung and Apple if you had any doubt at all — things get a lot tougher as we go lower down the order. Given their popularity in the US, you’d think Google, OnePlus, and Motorola are safe bets. Instead, rounding out the list are two phone makers you might have heard of, Xiaomi and vivo. But much harder to place, and is yet the fifth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, is Transsion. Beating out the likes of HUAWEI and OPPO in the global market, Transsion has had an impressive rise, which is only set to continue. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

What is Transsion?

Transsion Holdings is a Chinese smartphone maker based out of Shenzen and started doing business back in 2006. Unlike most of its Chinese counterparts, though, Transsion doesn’t sell phones in its huge home market. Instead, the company entered the African market in 2008, selling feature phones at first before releasing its first smartphone in 2014.

With its brands, Infinix, Tecno, and Itel, the company found immense popularity in emerging markets in Africa. It quickly rose to become the “smartphone king of Africa,” with a market share of close to 50% in 2021, and now hovers at around the 40% mark. Transsion duplicated this success in other emerging markets like Pakistan and Bangladesh, enjoying majority or near majority market share in both. With the company’s eyes set on the rest of the world, it has since entered more than 70 emerging markets in Central and South America, the Middle East, and Asia, including India, where it hopes to take on and replicate the immense popularity of Xiaomi.

With rapid expansion comes impressive growth, with its 9% global market share, according to Canalys, now putting it in fifth place and right on the back of vivo and closing the gap to the top three — Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi — that are at 18%, 16%, and 15%, respectively. It’s understandable that, despite being relatively unknown outside of Africa and other emerging markets, Transsion made the list of the TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2024.

What kind of smartphones does Transsion make?

Given the markets it focuses on, it’s no surprise that the majority of Transsion’s smartphones are affordable. And by affordable, we mean that most Infinix, Techo, and Itel phones start at well under $200, with some going as low as under $50 while offering specs comparable to or better than what you’d find among the best cheap phones in the US.

Let’s take the Tecno Spark 20 Pro as an example. It has a Full HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a mid-range MediaTek processor, 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, a 5,000mAh battery, and a triple camera setup headlined by a 108MP primary unit. Specs aren’t everything, of course, but that’s pretty impressive for a phone priced at around $170.

And while your Pixel 8a trudges along at 18W charging, the Spark 20 Pro comes with nearly double the charging speed at 33W. Which, I should point out, is actually quite slow for a company that showcased a concept phone in 2021 with 160W charging (a full charge in 10 minutes!). Tecno’s other slightly more expensive smartphones come with 70W fast charging.

Infinix’s gaming phone, the GT20 Pro, has a Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, 5,000mAh battery, 45W charging, JBL speakers, multiple gaming modes, and a 108MP primary camera. While the spec sheet gives thousand-dollar phones a run for their money, the GT20 Pro is priced at around $300 in India.

There are too many smartphones across all three brands to talk about them all, but the general gist is that these phones are far more feature-packed than what their price points suggest. You’ll also get gorgeous colorways and unique designs — no boring black, white, or metal here.

Transsion is following a similar path to Xiaomi when it comes to its smartphone portfolio. While affordable phones are its backbone, it is slowly dipping its toes into more premium segments. Tecno seems to be the go-to brand for this, and it joins the ranks of Samsung, OnePlus, Google, and others with its own foldables, the Phantom V Flip and Phantom V Fold. Both, while by far the most expensive phones the company offers, are priced at around $600 and $1,000, respectively, undercutting all the other Flips and Folds by a huge margin. Tecno also looks at cutting-edge technology, showing off cool tech in concept phones with color-changing backs and rollable displays.

Will Transsion phones ever make it to the US?

Transsion has stayed away from the US market so far. Despite holding a global launch event for the Tecno CAMON 19 in New York a couple of years ago, the phone was never officially released in the US.

There are indications that things might be changing, like an FCC listing for the Infinix GT20 Pro earlier this year. While this usually indicates a US launch, the phone was released in India and other markets but not in North America. That may yet change, with a phone like the GT20 Pro ideal to take on gaming phones from RedMagic and ASUS. However, there’s no concrete indication about Transsion’s plans to release any of its smartphones in the US yet.

Transsion will admittedly have a hard time breaking into a rather saturated market like the US. It will lack the brand recognition and distribution capabilities that power players, even in the affordable categories, have — carrier deals are definitely necessary if you hope to find success in the US. Transsion also doesn’t offer high-end phones like Samsung and Apple. And even if they do release them, success isn’t a guarantee. Just look at OnePlus. While decently popular, it hasn’t been able to break into the US market nearly as easily as it has in Europe and India.