China's smartphone sales fell 22% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020 due to a new coronavirus outbreak, according to a new report by market research firm Counterpoint.
Huawei, whose market share rose to about 40 percent, was the only smartphone vendor to achieve year-over-year growth in the epidemic.
Counterpoint research analyst Tang Flora said: little business activity, affected by the outbreak, led to a sharp decline in the Chinese market in the first quarter and poor smartphone sales in February (-35% year-on-year).
But Alibaba and Jingdong maintained effective operations in major cities outside of Hubei province during the Chinese lockout, making the negative impact on smartphone sales in China less than initially expected.
Counterpoint analyst Ethan Qi said that both Apple and Huawei Group managed to increase their market share, with Huawei smartphone sales up 6% year-on-year and iPhone sales down just 1%, significantly outpacing the overall market in Q1 2020.
The iPhone 11 was the best-selling smartphone model in the first quarter and has been on the list of best-selling models in China for seven consecutive months. Despite the closure of Apple stores across China in February, consumers can still buy iPhones online.
And Huawei covers the entry-level to high-end segment, with the Huawei Mate 30 5G, Mate30 Pro5G, Huawei Nova6 5G and HONOR 9X all top-selling models this quarter.
In terms of 5G deployment, analyst Meng Meng Zheng said that in the six months following the commercialization of 5G in China, the penetration rate of 5G smartphone sales exceeded the first quarter of 2020 at 15%.
Sales of 5G smartphones grew nearly 120% in the first quarter. Huawei contributed more than half of the total 5G phone sales in the first quarter, followed by vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi.
In the first quarter of 2020, multiple vendors are launching 5G phones priced below $400, such as the Vivo Z6 5G, Xiaomi K30 5G, Realme X50 5G and ZTE AXON 11 5G.
The report predicts that by the end of 2020, 5G smartphones will account for more than 40 percent of total smartphone sales in China.
