A couple of years ago if brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, or Oppo were mentioned, most of you guys might probably be scratching your heads as you most likely might not have heard of them. However these brands out of China have since been making a name for themselves and according to Cyanogen’s CEO Kirt McMaster, he thinks that these companies will eventually overtake the big names such as Samsung in the near future.McMaster is pointing at companies such as Xiaomi who have caught up to Apple and Samsung in recent times, not to mention even dethroning Samsung in China to claim the number one position in the market. Speaking in an interview with Business Insider, McMaster was quoted as saying, “The tier one OEMs like Samsung are going to be the next generation Nokias in the next five years. They’re going to be slaughtered.”
McMaster was not particularly optimistic about Apple’s future either. “We think long term Apple itself will have problems because they’re just not good at competing at the low end.” This is of course relatively good news for Cyanogen. The company has been spreading its software to these smaller OEMs such as OnePlus and Micromax, offering users a “cleaner” version of Android versus the more bloated versions of Android OEMs typically bundle with their phones.
That being said, we reckon there will always be a market for high-end devices, but what do you guys think? Could you envision a future where companies such as Apple and Samsung fall to the wayside in terms of smartphones?