On January 25th, the latest report released by data company IDC showed that for the entire year of 2023, the shipment volume of China's smartphone market was about 271 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 5.0%, marking the lowest shipment volume in nearly 10 years.
The good news is that the rebound has begun to show. In the fourth quarter of last year, the shipment volume of China's smartphone market was about 73.63 million units, a slight increase of 1.2% compared to the same period last year. This is also the first rebound after 10 consecutive quarters of year-on-year decline.
IDC pointed out that although the overall market has finally returned to a growth trend, its performance is significantly lower than expected.
At present, the main buyers of new phones are high-end consumers from first to third tier cities. The best-selling products are still concentrated in the flagship product series of various brands such as Apple iPhone 15, Huawei Mate 60, Xiaomi 14, and vivo X100. The replacement needs of middle and low-end users who occupy the majority of the market share have not been fully released.
From the perspective of manufacturers, Apple has taken the top spot in the domestic market in terms of shipment volume for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2023.
Despite Huawei's fierce offensive, driven by significant price reductions in third-party channels and Apple's own proactive promotions, Apple still holds a market share of 17.3% for the entire year. In 2022, vivo ranked first.
Since Apple released the iPhone 15 series in September last year, it has actively reduced prices and promoted products through key channels such as Tmall, JD.com, and the official website, with price reductions ranging from 500 yuan to 800 yuan. Huawei Mate 60, which is considered a direct competitor to iPhone 15, actually has few promotional actions.
Honor, an independent company from Huawei, ranked second in China's mobile phone shipments for the entire year of 2023, with a market share of 17.1%, very close to Apple. The brand has adopted a machine sea strategy in the past year, with product lines including the X series, digital series, Magic series, Play series, Play series, etc., attempting to cover all segmented markets.
At the end of 2022, Ni Jiayue, the President of Honor's All Scenario Business Department, took over as the President of China, which also became an important step for Honor to improve its channel relationships.
Apart from Honor, OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi respectively ranked third to fifth with market shares of 16.7%, 16.5%, and 13.2%.
It is worth mentioning that domestic manufacturers have new highlights in the high-end market. For example, OPPO won the sales crown in the vertical foldable screen market in 2023 with the hot sales of Find N3 Flip. The vivo X100 and Xiaomi 14 series have seen an increase in recognition in the market above $600.
Due to the still sluggish market, the shipments of the top five manufacturers have all experienced varying degrees of decline. By contrast, Huawei has become the fastest growing manufacturer in terms of shipment volume this year. Boosted by the Mate 60 series, Huawei's shipment volume in the fourth quarter has surged to fourth place in the domestic market, only behind Apple, Rongyao, and vivo.
Whether Huawei will fully return will also become the biggest highlight of the domestic mobile phone market this year. Prior to this, Huawei still needs to address capacity constraints.
IDC China Senior Analyst Guo Tianxiang pointed out that although the Chinese smartphone market has returned to a growth trend, the expected market performance for 2024 should be maintained with a cautious and optimistic attitude.
He said that consumers who purchased machines during the peak shipment period in 2020 will gradually enter the replacement cycle from the first half of this year. But new technologies such as satellite communication and AI big models will not prompt consumers to switch devices on a large scale in the short term. He suggested that the entire industry still needs to maintain a conservative and pragmatic operational strategy, control inventory, and stabilize cash flow.