It must be acknowledged that the development and sales of smartphones, especially in the Chinese market, have been sluggish to date. Therefore, Gree, a Chinese smartphone brand, has officially closed its smartphone division and exited the market competition.
Gree, which is more known for its household appliances and products, started producing smartphones back in 2015, with its latest smartphone product being the Gree Tosot G7 released last year in 2021.
Gree established the smartphone division with hopes of becoming one of the leading players in the mobile product market in China. Gree’s outspoken Chairman, Dong Mingzhu, made bold claims about the company’s smartphones, stating that they were “as good as Apple’s iPhone” and that Gree would “easily surpass Xiaomi” in the smartphone market.
Unfortunately, it seems that the brand failed to realize these aspirations and lagged far behind other popular Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei. For reference, smartphone shipments in China dropped 11% in the first quarter to the lowest level in a decade, according to market research firm Canalys.
