With the hot sales of the iPhone13 series in the Chinese market, there is no suspense to reach the top of the Chinese smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2021, which is the second time after a gap of six years to become the quarterly sales champion of the Chinese smartphone market.
On January 27, the latest data released by third-party market research firm Counterpoint showed that in the fourth quarter of 2021, Apple became the largest smartphone supplier in China with a market share of 23%, which is the first time that Apple has topped the Chinese mobile phone market since 2015.
Vivo and OPPO ranked second and third with a market share of 19% and 17%; Honor and Xiaomi ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, with a market share of 15% and 13%; Huawei and Realme ranked sixth and seventh, with a market share of 7% and 3%, respectively.
Apple is four percentage points higher than the second-place vivo. This also shows the success of Apple's iPhone 13 series in the Chinese market.
Counterpoint research analyst Mengmeng Zhang said Apple's outstanding performance is driven by its pricing strategy and the mix obtained from Huawei's premium base. After the release of the iPhone 13 in September last year, Apple rose to the first place in the Chinese market. After that, for most of the fourth quarter, it remained in the lead.
Apple's iPhone 13 series in the Chinese market has adopted a competitive pricing, coupled with the withdrawal of Huawei mobile phones from the market, high-end users have turned to purchase Apple mobile phones, once again pushing Apple to the champion position.
Counterpoint believes that Apple's success in the high-end market is an encouraging sign and will continue to inspire Chinese mobile phone manufacturers to deploy in the high-end market. "We expect the average selling price of smartphones to continue to rise in China as leading mobile phone manufacturers step up their efforts to raise the average selling price in response to declining sales."
After Huawei withdrew from the mobile phone market, OPPO, vivo, honor, and millet are all trying to lay out high-end mobile phones to seize the market share left by Huawei. On the one hand, the accumulation of high-end brands takes time to cultivate user trust; in addition, the competitiveness of high-end products of local brands is still relatively lacking, and it is impossible to directly compete with the iPhone 13.
However, under the background of the overall decline of the current market plate, the impact on the high-end market has become a must for all manufacturers, and this year, all manufacturers will launch more high-end products.
According to Counterpoint, smartphone sales in China fell 9 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, the third consecutive quarter of decline. Smartphone sales for the full year of 2021 also continued to decline for the fourth consecutive year, down 2% year-on-year.
For the whole year of 2021, Counterpoint's report shows that Vivo ranks first in the Chinese smartphone market with a market share of 22%, followed by OPPO, Apple, Xiaomi, Honor, Huawei and Realme.
Counterpoint believes that vivo and OPPO are in second and third place, respectively, driven by strong offline penetration and a broad product portfolio strategy. Vivo's performance was driven by the X70 series and S series, and OPPO took off with the Reno 7 series. Honor also began to rebound in the second half of 2021 after resuming relations with suppliers. Xiaomi ranked fourth in the fourth quarter of 2021. Faced with a more severe shortage of parts, slowing offline channel penetration and competition from Glory, Xiaomi ranked fifth in the quarter.
Counterpoint pointed out that in the past year, Chinese manufacturers have also been a milestone in the adoption of advanced technologies, and they have entered the upstream chip field. Vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi have all launched self-developed chipsets. OPPO and Honor have also launched foldable flagship models with more mature designs and highly customizable software, especially for Chinese users. Foldable products bring a new form factor to smartphone design. As foldable devices become more affordable, they may push some users to upgrade.
Commenting on the entire Chinese smartphone market, Ivan Lam, senior analyst at Counterpoint, said: "The Chinese market continues to decline due to various factors on both the supply and demand sides. First, the ongoing shortage of parts is impacting shipments from all OEMs. Second, the average replacement cycle of smartphones in China is getting longer and longer. Smartphone designs within brands have also become more homogeneous, especially in terms of hardware, failing to incentivize consumers to upgrade. Finally, China has experienced a complex economic environment, with exports driving growth while domestic spending remains sluggish. ”
Counterpoint believes that with Huawei's withdrawal, the Chinese market is changing rapidly. From the ranking of major manufacturers in 2021, the champion in the first quarter of 2021 is OPPO, the second and third quarters are vivo, and the fourth quarter is Apple.