China's smartphone shipments plunged in the first quarter of this year, leading to a plunge in phone processor shipments as well, but Huawei HiSilicon was an exception.
Smartphone processor shipments to the Chinese market plunged 44.5% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019, according to CINNO Research's latest monthly semiconductor industry report.
Most of the processor brand shipment data showed varying degrees of decline.
In terms of brand performance, HiSilicon became the only major brand in the Chinese market that did not experience a year-on-year decline in shipments in the first quarter, shipping 22.21 million tablets, essentially the same as the 22.17 million tablets shipped in the first quarter of 2019.
As a result, HiSilicon's market share rose to 43.9%, and for the first time, it overtook Qualcomm as the largest mobile phone processor brand shipped in China. Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple are in second, third, and fourth place.
In addition, the concentration of the Chinese smartphone processor market has further increased, with the first tier of HiSilicon and Qualcomm occupying more than 3/4 of the market share, reaching 76.7%, gradually increasing the distance between the second-tier manufacturers.
The stable HiSilicon shipments are also closely related to Huawei's increased adoption of HiSilicon chips.
According to CINNO Research data, the percentage of phones shipped by Huawei in the Chinese market since 2019 with HiSilicon processors has increased, reaching more than 90% by the first quarter of 2020.
In recent years, HiSilicon has been updating and launching Kirin8, 7 and 6 series chips, strengthening the penetration to Huawei and Glory mid- and low-end models, with significant results.
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