According to official data, from January to November 2021, local manufacturing factories in Pakistan produced 22.12 million mobile phones, while the country’s mobile device imports remained at around 9.95 million. In 2020, the number of local mobile phone production was 13.05 million units, while the number of imported mobile phones was 24.51 million units. From January to November 2021, local manufacturing companies in Pakistan assembled a total of 9.03 million smartphones, and the number of 2G mobile phones remained at 13.09 million. Compared with 2020, the production number of 2G mobile phones will increase in 2021. In 2020, the output of smartphones will be 2.06 million units, of which the output of 2G mobile phones will be 10.98 million units. In 2019, the output of smartphones was only 120,000 units, of which the output of 2G mobile phones was 11.62 million units. According to the PTA, the number of 2G mobile devices in Pakistan currently stands at 48 million units and smartphones at 52 million units. Among them, Chinese mobile equipment companies occupy almost half of the mobile phone market. The top 10 local Chinese brands assembled and processed include Itel, VGO TEL, Infinix, Vivo, Tecno, QQMEE and OPPO, and the assembly parts of the other three companies are mostly from China. From January to November 2021, Itel produced a total of 3.91 million mobile devices, including 2.97 million for VGO Tel, 2.65 million for Infinix, 2.45 million for Vivo, 1.87 million for Techno, 0.86 million for QQMEE, and 860,000 for Oppo 670,000 units. In August 2021, Inovi Telecom exported Pakistan-made 4G smartphones to the Middle East for the first time, marking the beginning of the export of “Made in Pakistan” mobile devices. In November 2021, Xiaomi, one of China’s mobile device giants, announced a partnership with Airlink Communications to plan to establish a smartphone production base in Pakistan. Samsung Electronics also intends to start production locally from Q1 in 2022, with plans to produce about 2.5 million to 3 million units per year. According to industry analysts, by 2022, more than 90% of the number of mobile phones sold will be “Made in Pakistan”, and Pakistan will also become one of the major mobile device exporters in the future. Xinhan
