Chinese Smartphone Market Sees Biggest Decline Ever, Apple Falls to Fifth Place [Chart]

Smartphone shipments in China saw their biggest decline ever in Q1 2018, dropping over 21% annually to 91 million units, reports Canalys. That number was first passed four years ago in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Eight of the top 10 smartphone vendors were hit by annual declines, with Gionee, Meizu and Samsung shrinking to less than half of their respective Q1 2017 numbers. Huawei (including Honor) managed to grow shipments by a modest 2%, maintaining its lead and consolidating its market share to about 24% by shipping over 21 million smartphones. Second-placed Oppo and third-placed Vivo bore the brunt of the overall decline, with shipments falling by about 10% to 18 million and 15 million respectively. Xiaomi was the only company to buck the trend, growing shipments by 37% to 12 million units, and overtaking Apple to take fourth place.




Canalys notes that Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi now account for over 73% of the market and predicts that their size will help them weather the declining smartphone market.

“The level of competition has forced every vendor to imitate the others’ product portfolios and go-to-market strategies,” said Canalys Research Analyst Mo Jia. “But the costs of marketing and channel management in a country as big as China are huge, and only vendors that have reached a certain size can cope. While Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi must contend with a shrinking Chinese market, they can take comfort from the fact that it will continue to consolidate, and that their size will help them last longer than other smaller players.”

Check out the chart or hit the link below for more details. Unfortunately, Apple shipments are no longer broken out of the Others category.

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