Paris (May 1, 2025): Mobiwire posted its strongest growth in years in 2024 as the broader shift toward outsourced smartphone design reached a record high. ODM partners designed and manufactured 44% of all smartphones shipped globally in 2024, according to Counterpoint Research's Smartphone ODM Tracker — the highest share on record, continuing a structural trend building since the global smartphone shipment peak in 2017.
Mobiwire was among the fastest-growing ODMs in the market during the period, with H1 2024 shipments up 50% year-over-year according to Counterpoint. The growth reflected strong demand from brand partners expanding across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America — regions where the ODM model is well-suited, as local operators and brands require competitive, certified hardware at scale without the infrastructure to develop it independently.
The record ODM share reflects a broader change in how brands approach hardware development. Rather than maintaining in-house R&D and manufacturing, a growing number of brands are partnering with ODMs to handle the full development cycle — from industrial design and chipset selection through regulatory certification and mass production. An ODM engagement gives a brand access to engineering teams, component supply chains, and manufacturing capacity that would take years and significant capital to build internally. Development timelines compress because the ODM's engineers have already validated the platform, negotiated component pricing, and run comparable products through certification. For brands entering new markets or launching new device categories, the model reduces both time to market and the cost of a failed product iteration.
"The brands gaining ground in emerging markets aren't doing it by building their own factories," said Pierre Dupic, CEO, Mobiwire. "They're doing it by choosing the right ODM partner and focusing their energy on distribution, marketing, and customer relationships. That's the model — and the data shows it's working at scale."
While high-volume consumer smartphones represent the largest category, ODM partnerships are increasingly common in fintech hardware, enterprise devices, and connected terminals — product categories where certification requirements and engineering complexity make in-house development impractical for most brands. Mobiwire's portfolio spans these verticals, with consumer smartphone volume providing the production scale that supports ongoing investment in more specialized hardware segments.
Access the Counterpoint report here.
