According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 65,7-million smartphones shipped in China in 2Q23, a narrower decline of 2,1% compared to the same period last year. In the first half of the year, the Chinese market saw 130,9-million shipments, down 7,3% year-on-year (YoY).
The sluggish consumer demand recovery offset the bigger discount efforts from smartphone vendors and e-commerce operators, leading to a more-than-5% drop in sales during the “618” online shopping festival. The discouraging sales results indicated the challenging environment will continue in the short term.
Huawei reached the top five again by having a tie with Xiaomi. The return of Huawei was mainly supported by a better product launching pace as well as the favorable sales performance of its P60 series and foldable Mate X3 model. Huawei and Apple were the only vendors with a positive YoY growth in the top five ranking, as the price discounts of Apple’s iPhone 14 series successfully stimulated the demand.
“Gloomy consumer demand is not the only challenge now for the top tier vendors as Huawei made a comeback and potentially triggered more competition in the high-end segment,” says Will Wong, senior research manager: client devices at IDC Asia/Pacific. Wong adds, “More intense rivalry is expected to be seen, especially during the product launch period and the Singles’ Day shopping festival.”