In the first quarter of 2024, the smartphone market in Chinese mainland ushered in its first recovery in two years, with shipments unchanged from the same period last year to 67.7 million units. This result suggests that China's smartphone market is starting to show signs of recovery after a period of weakness.
After 13 quarters, Huawei once again regained the first place in the smartphone market in Chinese mainland, with 11.7 million units shipped and a market share of 17% thanks to the enthusiastic market response of the Mate and nova series. Huawei's success is due to the gradual improvement of production and supply shortages in its premium product line, the Mate series, and the market heat generated by the performance of the mid-range product line, the nova series.
At the same time, Huawei will continue to strengthen its R&D in software and hardware in 2024, comprehensively upgrade the P series, and continue to promote the expansion of the HarmonyOS operating system, making it the third largest operating system in the Chinese market. Huawei's innovative strategy of expanding into consumer electronics by promoting the implementation of ICT and industry-level AI technologies is expected to break the duopoly of Android and iOS in the smartphone market.
In addition to Huawei, OPPO also performed very well in the first quarter of 2024, with the Reno 11 series helping it quickly jump to second place in the market, with 10.9 million units shipped. OPPO pays more attention to innovation in brand positioning and has invested heavily in marketing. OPPO has strengthened its efforts in AI features and brand positioning to actively engage consumers and strengthen its position in the market.
Honor, Vivo, and Apple performed slightly worse in the first quarter of 2024. Although Honor ranked third, the growth rate of shipments slowed to 10.6 million units, up 9% year-on-year. Vivo ranked fourth with 10.3 million units shipped, but down 9% year-on-year. Apple fell the most, ranking fifth with 10 million units shipped, down 25% year-on-year. This downward trend indicates that Apple's competitive pressure in the Chinese mainland market is increasing, which may be related to its product update cycle and marketing strategy.
From an industry perspective, Zhu Jiatao, a senior analyst at Canalys, said that the growth rate of the Chinese market in the first quarter of 2024 is still slower than the global recovery rate of 11%, which provides Huawei with an opportunity to seize market share. Against the backdrop of market recovery, Huawei has accelerated the optimization of production and supply chain by promoting innovation in hardware and software systems, and regained the first place in the market.
Canalys pointed out that despite Huawei's strong start to the year, the overall market is expected to maintain a modest recovery of only 1% in 2024. This expectation of low-speed growth means that competition among manufacturers will intensify, and manufacturers need to build moats through innovation to improve product competitiveness. In addition, exploring multi-channel growth opportunities, especially the combination of online and offline channels, will be key to future success. Price control and inventory management will also be important factors for manufacturers to stand out from the fierce competition.
In 2024, generative AI phones are expected to account for 12% of shipments in the Chinese market, leading the global average. In this area, Xiaomi leads the way with its flagship 14 series, Honor explores cross-end AI functions with the Magic 6 series and Magic Book Pro16, and OPPO uses AI functions as a brand positioning. 2024 will be a pivotal year for Chinese manufacturers to drive consumer awareness and adoption of AI products through innovation and R&D.