Oppo has a plan to crack the European smartphone market — and chatbots like ChatGPT could hold the key

Recent data published by Counterpoint Research paints a bleak picture of the smartphone industry as it stands today.

Q3 2026 (that’s the period between July and September) marked the lowest Q3 for smartphone sales in 14 years, with challenger brands like Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo all experiencing declines in market share versus the same period in 2025.

Skyrocketing component costs have wreaked havoc on the budget and mid-range tiers, while consumers are holding onto their devices for longer and have become more discerning in how and where they spend their money.

What, then, are growth-hungry smartphone manufacturers to do? Oppo, for its part, plans to pursue an aggressive premiumization strategy in Europe.

“The European premium market is dominated by two brands,” Elvis Zhou, CEO of Oppo Europe, explained to TechRadar in a recent roundtable interview.

“I believe local European consumers would be interested in a third, good option.” Zhou didn’t mention Apple and Samsung by name in our discussion, but those two companies were the only two smartphone manufacturers to grow their respective market shares during that aforementioned Q3 period (though they, too, suffered year-on-year sales declines).

Oppo's next flagship, the Find X10 Pro Max, is due to be released on October 21 (Image credit: Future) “We are not here to say we will replace one of these established brands.

No.

We are here to offer a differentiated third option [...] I believe, in the future, the competition between flagship products [will not be] about price; we are not here to sell a more affordable smartphone.

We are here to offer a differentiated experience for the premium market.

“And we heard the same [sentiment] through our market research — most premium users would be happy to try a third premium brand.” The European market is not as wedded to Apple and Samsung as, say, the US market, but these companies still account for 68% of the entire European smartphone market (34% each).

By contrast, different sources put Oppo’s share of the European pie at between 1 and 4%.

That’s a sizable mountain to climb for any brand — but Zhou and Oppo have identified three emerging trends that could turn the tide in the Chinese company’s favor.

“I'm quite aware that these two established brands in the European market do still lead the market in terms of brand awareness, sales channels, and even retail channels; they still do have a lot of advantages,” Zhou explained.