Anamika Dey, editor
Brief news
- Apple has been dethroned from the top five smartphone vendors’ list in China during the second quarter due to competition from domestic brands like Huawei.
- Apple’s market share in China decreased from 15% in Q1 to 14% in Q2, and the company has fallen to the sixth position in terms of smartphone shipments.
- Chinese brands like Vivo, Oppo, Honor, Huawei, and Xiaomi dominate the Chinese smartphone market, with Vivo leading the pack with a 19% market share.
Detailed news
According to a Canalys report, Apple was dethroned from the top five smartphone vendors’ list in China during the second quarter due to the increasing competition from domestic brands like Huawei.
According to the report published on Thursday, Apple’s market share in China decreased from 15% in the first quarter to 14% in the second quarter, a decrease from 16% in the same period a year ago and 15% in that quarter.
According to CNBC’s calculations, the iPhone manufacturer, which was the third-largest smartphone vendor in the second quarter of last year, has fallen to the sixth position with approximately 9.7 million shipments.
Lucas Zhong, a research analyst at Canalys, stated that this quarter marks the first time in history that domestic vendors have accounted for all five of the top positions.
Apple’s shipments have been decreasing since the first quarter, when they decreased by 25% year over year to 10 million units.
“The hardware and software features are beginning to demonstrate the benefits of Chinese vendors’ strategies for high-end products and their extensive collaboration with local supply chains.” Zhong further stated that the user experience of foldable devices has been substantially improved by Honor’s most recent Magic V3, which utilizes GenAI.
Conversely, Apple is encountering a “bottleneck” in the Chinese market as it endeavors to “stabilize retail prices and protect margins of channel partners,” according to him.
According to Canalys, the localization of Apple Intelligence services in China will be a significant initiative in the coming year, as Chinese brands are introducing generative AI into their products with great momentum.
Chinese brands are the most prevalent.
Vivo’s 19% market share and 13.1 million units dispatched from April to June were the result of robust offline and online sales during the “618” e-commerce festival, which propelled the company back to the top spot.
With 11.3 million units sold, Oppo maintained its second-place position, which was encouraged by the introduction of its new Reno 12 series. Honor, a Huawei subsidiary, ranked third with 10.7 million units shipped, representing a 4% year-over-year increase.
Huawei’s market share was 15%, and it ranked fourth with 10.6 million shipment units. This was a significant improvement from the previous year, when it failed to reach the top five. Huawei’s consumer business has experienced a resurgence in China following the release of its Mate 60 smartphone.
Canalys reported that Xiaomi’s K70 and flagship 14 series sales were robust, and the company’s initial electric vehicle, the SU7, generated significant chatter, resulting in its fifth-place finish.
Canalys reported that the Chinese smartphone market experienced a 10% year-over-year increase in the second quarter, with shipments surpassing 70 million units.
Source : CNBC News
