Chinese smartphone shipments rise 2.2% year-over-year during the second quarter

According to a new report, Chinese smartphone shipments had a strong second quarter rising 2.2% year-over-year, and 10% on a sequential basis to reach 94.2 million units. For the first quarter, Chinese shipments of connected handsets dropped 2.9% year-over-year and tallied under 100 million units in a quarter for the first time since 2013. In fact, the number of phones shipped in China from January through March totaled less than 90 million units.

The rebounding second quarter in China was led by strong gains in shipments by domestic manufacturers including Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. All four reported gains of 10% or more in the second quarter, compared to their first quarter shipments in the country. The report notes that sales of the Apple iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8 declined on a sequential basis, as did sales of older iPhone models. Chinese consumers have been sitting on their wallets, awaiting the unveiling and launch of the 2018 iPhone models.

The report says that Apple could be alone among the top five brands in China to report growth in shipments during the second half of the year. Thanks to the three new models that Apple is expected to unveil and launch next month, the report says that the company should report single-digit growth in China for the third and fourth quarters. Xiaomi is expected to report flat shipments for the last half of the year, while Huawei, Oppo and Vivo could see single or even double digit percentage declines domestically for the last two quarters of 2018.

Globally, Huawei just surpassed Apple to become the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The company shipped 54.2 million phones worldwide during the period from April through June, topping the 41.3 million iPhone handsets delivered by Apple during the same period.

source: Digitimes