According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, China’s smartphone market shipped 68,4-million units in 3Q25, with the YoY decline easing to 0,6% after the previous quarter saw a drop of around 4%.
This was despite the third quarter being traditionally a low season, characterised by fewer new product launches, as well as more rational consumer spending due to the tightening of government subsidy policy. However, market performance is expected to see some improvement early next quarter as various brands began the early, concentrated launch of a significant number of their flagship products starting from mid-to-late September.
“The cautious sentiment turned consumers into value seekers. This was not entirely a negative development, as we saw this trend specifically benefit Apple’s new product launches,” says Will Wong, senior research manager for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific. “Apple’s value-for-money base model iPhone 17 successfully captured this group of consumers, helping it to achieve slight growth and a higher ranking than the previous quarter.
“Separately, Honor emerged as another notable performer, tying with OPPO,” Wong adds. “This reflected a head-to-head competition and broader intense rivalry among market players.”
Arthur Guo, senior research analyst in Client System Research for IDC China, says: “The Singles’ Day online shopping festival will be the most-awaited event in the last quarter of the year. Nevertheless, the event is unlikely to spark significant additional consumer demand amid the economic uncertainty.
“Smartphone OEMs must look beyond appealing pricing and promotions and return to the fundamentals: creating differentiated, truly competitive products to secure consumer favour,” Guo says.