It will soon be easy to transfer data between Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo phones: Learn more

Three Chinese tech brands OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi have joined hands to allow users to transfer data between their devices in a bid to take on Apple’s growing market share in the country, media reported on Friday.

The three smartphone makers announced the deal on their Weibo accounts, saying their users will be able to transfer system and app data “seamlessly to a new handset belonging to any of these brands,” according to the South China Morning Post.

In 2019, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi established a wireless transfer protocol that mirrors Apple’s AirDrop functionality.

The Google Drive service is not available for phones sold in the Chinese mainland market, and most users in China rely on third-party data transfer applications.

However, Apple iPhone users can transfer data directly to a new iOS device via iCloud or via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

“The new partnership between Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, which together control nearly half of China’s smartphone market, comes after the country saw its sharpest drop in smartphone sales in a decade last year,” the report said.

However, the new year started well in the Chinese smartphone market, and at the beginning of 2023, sales grew rapidly to over 7 million each week.

In four out of five weeks, sales remained above 6 million, a level rarely reached in 2022, when the pandemic haunted Chinese cities at times.

Chinese New Year also started earlier than usual this year, helping weekly sales to walk off the bottom in early 2023, Counterpoint Research reports.

In January, Apple remained China’s largest original equipment manufacturer (OEM) measured by sales share, and its sales grew by about 6 percent year-on-year.

The smartphone market in China has shrunk since 2017 in terms of sales growth on an annual basis. The last quarter of 2022 was down 15 percent year-over-year, denting confidence among major OEMs and further dampening the market outlook.

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