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Apple continues to dominate the Chinese mobile phone market despite the odds

The Chinese mobile phone market is the largest market in the world and one of the most lucrative. However, this market is also very complex and highly competitive. Not many mobile phone brands survive the rigors of the Chinese market. This is because China has a lot of indigenous brands that are doing well in China. Most of these brands sell pretty cheap devices that serve the purpose of the buyers. However, as a complex market that it is, the Chinese market still has room from non-Chinese brands. In fact, a couple of non-Chinese brands are doing pretty well in China.

Mobile phone

Gizchina News of the week

Canalys released a report today stating that China’s mobile phone shipments in 2022 will drop by 14% year-on-year to 287 million units. This is the first time in the past ten years that it will fall below 300 million units. Amongst the best performing brands, Vivo claims the top spot. However, in terms of growth, only Honor and Apple achieve annual growth of 30% and 4% respectively. These companies rank second and third in the market respectively.

Apple claims the high end market

High-end consumers have shown some resilience in the economic turmoil, coupled with Apple’s price reduction promotion strategy, its annual share hit a record high of 18%. The report also points out that in the fourth quarter of 2022, the mobile phone market in mainland China will still run at a low level. It will have an overall shipments of 74.4 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 14%. Specifically:

  • Affected by the continuity of production at Foxconn in Zhengzhou, Apple fell 24% year-on-year, but it still relied on the release of the iPhone 14 series to ship 16.4 million units, ranking first.
  • Competed by Apple’s peak season, Vivo ranks second with a 17% market share and shipped 12.7 million units.
  • OPPO (including OnePlus) shipped 12.5 million units, ranking third, maintaining its performance in the third quarter.
  • Honor shipped 12.2 million units, dropping to fourth place in terms of shipments.
  • Xiaomi maintains its fifth position with a shipment of 8.5 million units.