The latest press release from market research firm Counterpoint reveals sales of Huawei smartphones in China grew an impressive 64% in the first six weeks of January, while Apple, OPPO and vivo saw double-digit declines. OPPO experienced the biggest drop-off at 29%, with Apple’s iPhone not far behind at 24%.
Since dropping its Mate 60 handset last year, Huawei has been riding a tidal wave of consumer support and reclaimed its spot as China’s dominant smartphone seller. Huawei defied US restrictions on exports of chipmaking equipment to release the Mate 60, a self-developed 5G phone – a feat that shocked analysts and cemented the tech giant’s status as a leading innovator.
The steep drop in iPhone sales in the first week of January broadly continued over the next six weeks to fall 24% year-on-year. “Primarily, [the iPhone] faced stiff competition at the high end from a resurgent Huawei while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi,” says Mengmeng Zhang, one of Counterpoint’s senior analysts. “Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now.”
Overall, China’s smartphone sales declined 7% year-on-year, in part because the same period last year saw abnormally high sales. A significant number of sales in January 2023 had been deferred from December 2022 due to production delays, amplifying the decline in January 2024. The report concludes that there is still low consumer confidence and smartphone sales will continue to decline for the remainder of the first quarter.
