IT Home April 29 news, Canalys agency said that in the first quarter of 2022, the performance of the Chinese mainland smartphone market continued to lag behind the global market, shipping only 75.6 million units, down 18% year-on-year and 13% month-on-month.
Compared to the abnormal highs in the first quarter of 2021, the market experienced a seasonal correction in the quarter. Honor topped the list with 15 million units shipped and a staggering 205 percent growth rate. OPPO, which includes OnePlus, continues to drive brand transformation, maintaining second place with shipments of 13.9 million units. Apple managed to hold the top three positions after a strong performance in the fourth quarter of last year. Vivo and Xiaomi ranked among the top five, with shipments of 12.2 million units and 10.6 million units, respectively.
Canalys analysts said: "Given the lackluster market performance in the fourth quarter of last year, a correction in this quarter is expected. China's smartphone market has been consistently depressed for nearly three years, and demand and production are typically low in the first quarter. As Huawei's shipments have declined in the past few quarters, competition among the top five vendors has intensified. Although most of the head manufacturers slowed down the pace of new product releases in the first quarter, Honor still successfully achieved a 6% sequential increase in the first quarter. The Honor 60 Series and X30 Series continue to expand their offline channels, contributing to the brand's solid performance. "
Canalys analysts said: "Since February, the outbreak of the Opichron variant and the strict lockdown in major cities have cast a shadow over the consumer market that has not yet recovered from last year's weakness. In order to cope with sudden retail shutdowns and logistics delays, manufacturers have to adopt a more cautious stocking strategy, which is bound to affect short-term shipments. The increasing macroeconomic uncertainty at home and abroad will further hit the job market and consumer confidence, and the impact on the low-end smart phone market is particularly obvious. This year, domestic manufacturers have no choice but to continue to increase investment in the mid-to-high-end market to hedge the risk of slowing mobile phone sales in the mass market. ”
The analyst added: "Under the uncertainty and continuous disruption of the business, manufacturers should be cautious to reduce their resource investment in the Chinese market. Supply pressures have eased, and manufacturers can take advantage of this opportunity to shift their focus to improving product attractiveness, improving channel layout and increasing customer loyalty. At the same time, the performance of manufacturers in the Chinese market is crucial to maintaining supply chain confidence, and even more important to the production capacity allocation of manufacturers themselves and the entire smartphone category. With China home to most upstream supply chains, overly pessimistic market sentiment can force parts suppliers to shift capacity to other, more profitable product categories. The last thing manufacturers want to face is to repeat the shortage of parts in the second half of the year or early 2023 when demand rebounds. ”