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Tecno, Infinix and Itel may be unfamiliar names to North American and European consumers, but in much of the developing world they are known as powerhouse brands belonging to the world's least-known major phone maker – Transsion.
Even in China the Shenzhen-based company is little known, developing its business almost exclusively outside China's borders.
Last year Transsion shipped 58.4 million handsets, including 3.6 million feature phones, and raked in 65.6 billion Chinese yuan (US$9.8 billion) in revenue, three-quarters coming from Africa and emerging Asia.
Research firm Frost & Sullivan ranked Transsion as the world's no. 3 handset brand by units shipped and eighth largest by revenue in 2025, according to the firm's Hong Kong IPO prospectus.
But its Hong Kong debut Thursday was a fizzer, with the stock dropping 5% before finishing the week 2% below the IPO price.
Transsion could hardly have picked a worse time to go public. The global handset market is in full retreat. Smartphone shipments slumped 20% in Q3 to their lowest level in 14 years, Counterpoint Research has revealed.
Related:The memory crisis is a win for Apple and Huawei
The biggest single factor is the soaring cost of handset memory, a side-effect of the AI memory boom.
Memory costs soar
Transsion said its memory expense soared 147% in the first four months of 2026, driving its smartphone average selling price (ASP) up 31%. That's a challenge for a company that last year had a gross margin of 18.7% and an operating margin of 4.4%.
Counterpoint senior analyst Shilpi Jain said the "extreme memory shortage" was forcing consumers to hold on to their devices longer and being more likely to buy second-hand phones.
She said that while the top-end of the market remained comparatively resilient, "the gap between premium and price-sensitive segments" was widening.
Counterpoint co-founder Neil Shah offers an even more pessimistic outlook. He expects the low-end segment to contract by around 14% this year and another 3% to 4% next year.
Shah said a phone costing $150 two years ago can now cost around $300 without any advance in functionality. The memory squeeze could drive around 100 to 150 million phones out of the market, he predicts, with many budget consumers unable to afford a new phone.
Transsion's IPO raised 3.06 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$394 million), which it said it would spend on AI development, upgrading its OS and brand-building.
About the Author
Contributing Editor, Light Reading
Robert Clark is an independent technology editor and researcher based in Hong Kong.