What’s new: In the second quarter of 2023, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. was the only company among the top smartphone vendors in China to record double-digit shipment growth in the domestic market, where consumer demand for handsets remained weak following the pandemic.
In the three months through June, Huawei saw a year-on-year increase of 76.1% in shipments in China, giving it the title of the country’s No. 6 smartphone brand with a market share of 13%, according to a recent report by market researcher IDC.
Giving no specific shipment figures, IDC attributed the performance to “a better product launching pace” and “the favorable sales performance of its P60 series and foldable Mate X3 model.”
Oppo claimed the top spot with a market share of 17.7%, followed by brands Vivo, Honor, Apple and Xiaomi, which controlled 17.2%, 16.4%, 15.3% and 13.1% of the market, respectively. Shipments dropped year-on-year 2.1% at Oppo, while Vivo reported an 11.9% slump, Honor 17.9%, and Xiaomi 17.5%. Apple logged a 6.1% jump in shipments.
Overall, the slide in sales appears to be slowing in China’s smartphone market, with shipments falling only 2.1% year-on-year in the second quarter to 65.7 million devices, compared with the previous four quarters, which all saw shipments contract by double-digits, according to the report.
The background: In March, IDC said in a note that smartphone shipments in China will likely edge down in 2023 by 1.1% to 283 million units, with high inflation and uncertainties in the global economy dragging on the recovery of consumer demand.
But the research firm predicted that a turnaround could start in the second half of this year and extend into 2024, when the country’s smartphone shipments may increase by 6.2% to around 300 million devices as the macroeconomic environment improves.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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