Strategy Analytics data shows that during China’s “6.18” online shopping festival, total smartphone sales were 14 million units, down 25 percent year-over-year. Shipments of Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo all declined, but Apple iPhone sales remained relatively stable.
Apple outsold all of its competitors by selling nearly 7 million iPhones during the 618 holiday season, and the company topped all major commercial platforms in terms of revenue share.
The Chinese market mirrors global trends: According to a recent Canalys report, global smartphone shipments fell 9 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2022, while Apple’s iPhone had a 17 percent market share, up 3 percent year-over-year. Samsung’s share of cell phones increased by the same margin to 21 percent, while Chinese vendors Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo saw their market shares fall to 14 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
The data shows surprisingly resilient demand for the iPhone 13 / Pro in China despite widespread supply chain issues and economic headwinds affecting the tech industry. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that demand for Apple’s iPhone 14 series is expected to maintain momentum, especially given Apple’s increased dominance of China’s high-end 5G smartphone market following Huawei’s withdrawal.
Apple is expected to launch the new iPhone 14 series in September this year, and the lineup will include the 6.1-inch iPhone 14, 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max, 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max.
According to China ICT, in June 2022, the domestic market shipped 28.017 million cell phones, up 9.2% year-on-year, of which 23.027 million were 5G phones, up 16.3% year-on-year and accounting for 82.2% of cell phone shipments in the same period. from January to June 2022, the overall domestic market shipped 136 million cell phones, down 21.7% year-on-year, of which 5G cell phone shipments of 109 million units, down 14.5% year-on-year, accounting for 80.2% of cell phone shipments in the same period.
