China smartphone sales drop 7% YoY in first six weeks of 2024

China’s overall smartphone unit sales declined 7% YoY in the first six weeks of 2024, with key vendors like Apple, OPPO and vivo seeing double-digit declines, according to Counterpoint Research’s latest China Smartphone Weekly Sell-through Tracker.

Apple’s iPhone struggled during the first few weeks of the year for several reasons. “Primarily, it faced stiff competition at the high end from a resurgent Huawei while getting squeezed in the middle on aggressive pricing from the likes of OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi,” said Senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang, adding, “Although the iPhone 15 is a great device, it has no significant upgrades from the previous version, so consumers feel fine holding on to the older-generation iPhones for now.”

At the same time, it may be noted that the first six weeks of 2023 saw abnormally high numbers with significant unit sales being deferred from December 2022 due to production issues, magnifying the negative YoY comparison.

Huawei continued to attract and satisfy strong demand for its Mate 60 series, one of the only bright spots to the start of the year.

“Consumer confidence will need to rise to stabilize the market, but it is a tough call right now with everything that is happening, especially in the real estate sector,” said Senior Analyst Ivan Lam, adding, “As far as Apple is concerned, there is more wriggle room in the short term. This weekend’s aggressive promotions are just one example.”

Overall growth is likely to remain in the red during Q1 2024 on muted spending and a few new product launches. Counterpoint Research