At the end of April, the sales data for the first quarter of the domestic market was finally released. Judging from the overall data, the sales volume of China's smartphone market continued to grow year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, which is the second consecutive quarter that the domestic market has achieved positive year-on-year growth, maintaining a steady momentum of development.
According to the latest data released by Counterpoint Research, China's smartphone sales increased by 1.5% year-on-year and 4.6% quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2024. According to the latest quarterly mobile phone tracking report released by IDC, China's smartphone market shipped about 69.26 million units in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%.
Note that one of their data is sales volume and the other is shipment volume, the former represents market consumption data, and the shipment volume includes the data of channel providers. A market share figure will be mentioned later, which includes not only the newly sold part, but also the stock part. These concepts are slightly different, and they will be reflected in the specific data and rankings. A comprehensive investigation will help to further understand the market situation more accurately.
Although the market as a whole has maintained a growth trend, in terms of brands, the competition is still fierce, and the data of major brands have fluctuated very much, of course, some have grown sharply, and some have fluctuated and declined.
In terms of the breakdown of various manufacturers, according to the latest sales of Chinese smartphones in the first quarter of 2024 released by Counterpoint, vivo ranked first in sales this quarter, followed by Honor and Apple. However, the most impressive results were Huawei, with a year-on-year increase of 69.7%, while Honor and Xiaomi also showed growth of 11.5% and 8.6%, respectively.
Apple, OPPO, and vivo have seen varying degrees of sales declines, with Apple's sales in China falling by 19% in the first quarter, the worst performance in the Chinese market since 2020. Oppo also fell 15.5%, while Vivo fell slightly by 0.4%.
It is worth noting that although the sales volume of each company fluctuates greatly, the percentage difference between the sales of the six major brands of vivo, honor, Apple, Huawei, OPPO, and Xiaomi is only 2.8%, indicating that the sales data of each company in the first quarter is actually very close, especially OPPO, Huawei, and Apple, with a difference of only 0.2%. The sales competition of various brands may not have the final result until the second half of the year.
In terms of market share, the report released by IDC shows that Honor won the first place with a market share of 17.1%, Huawei ranked second with 17.0%, and OPPO, Apple and vivo ranked third to fifth respectively, with market shares of 15.7%, 15.6% and 14.6%.
Similar to the sales figures, the market share of several brands is only 2.4%, and benefiting from the strong sales of the Mate60 series, Huawei's market share in the first quarter of 2024 increased by 110.0% year-on-year, while OPPO, Apple, and vivo have experienced varying degrees of share decline.
Previously, the market was hotly discussing after Huawei's full return, which manufacturer will be the most affected, judging from the current data, in fact, everyone is "no one spared", Huawei's full return, the impact on the market is also comprehensive. While the numbers for other brands have declined, they are sending a more positive signal.
As the Counterpoint report puts it, "The recovery seems to be gathering momentum as smartphone sales in China continue to grow and achieve a 4.6% month-on-month increase." "The mobile phone market in 2024 is undoubtedly off to a good start, and with the intensification of competition and the approach of the replacement cycle, the signs of recovery of the mobile phone market are becoming more and more obvious.