Smartphone sales in China alone fell 13 percent to 75 million units in the second quarter from the previous quarter, the lowest on record for the period, market research firm Counterpoint Research said Wednesday.
Smartphone sales for the quarter fell 6 percent year-over-year, indicating a weaker market than last year, Counterpoint said.
Demand for smartphones in China remained relatively weak as Huawei left a gap that was not immediately filled by other OEMs, analyst Mengmeng Zhang said.
Huawei is a strong brand in the Chinese market, and many users are still keeping their Huawei devices in their hands rather than moving on to other vendors, Zhang said, adding that the smartphone market in China is fairly mature and demand is mainly switching demand.
Once market leader Huawei's market share fell from 32 percent in the second quarter of 2020 to 10 percent in the second quarter of this year after the U.S. imposed a ban on Huawei, said Ethan Qi, another analyst at Counterpoint.
Vivo and OPPO, on the other hand, led the market with 23% and 21% market share, respectively, followed by Xiaomi and Apple.
All the leading OEMs benefited from Huawei's decline, which expanded their market share. Realme also continued its growth momentum in China, topping 1 million units sold for the first time, EthanQi said.
Xiaomi was the fastest-growing OEM in the quarter and grew as much as 70 percent year-over-year in the second quarter as it accelerated its offline expansion, opening more physical stores in lower-tier cities and counties, according to Counterpoint.
Xiaomi also penetrated the high-end market with the Mi 11 Ultra and Mi 11 Pro.
Counterpoint expects the Chinese smartphone market to again experience further reshuffling in the third quarter and become more competitive with Honor's rapid recovery.
Honor's sales have already started to improve after it resumed partnerships with suppliers and secured component supply. honor's market share was 8.4 percent in June, compared to 5.1 percent in January.
Honor says it has become third largest smartphone brand in China
