August 2024 News: Techinsights, a well-known market research institution, released a report showing that China's smartphone shipments reached 67.4 million units in the second quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 5%. This was mainly due to the normalization of inventory levels and more aggressive promotions by manufacturers, and the industry continued its recovery trend.
The "Matthew effect" is becoming more and more significant, with the top six manufacturers accounting for 96% of China's smartphone market. The competition between each other has intensified, and the rankings have changed a lot. OPPO and Honor declined to varying degrees, with shipments of 11.2 million units (market share 16.6%) and 10.3 million units (market share 15.3%), down 8.2% and 4.6% year-on-year respectively.
The former has been negative for the fourth consecutive quarter, and OPPO has taken a cautious approach in new product launches, striving to create more boutique products for young consumers, such as the Reno 12 series and A3 Pro. The latter dropped to fourth place, with a product line focused on the mass market, with the launch of the mid-to-high-end Honor 200 series and the entry-level Changwan 50 series.
In addition, Honor updated the folding screen product line, first launching the small folding phone Magic V Flip on June 13, followed by the launch of Magic V3 and Magic Vs3 in July, aiming at the high-end market with slim design and AI experience.
Apple was squeezed out of the top five, ranking sixth with 9.5 million units shipped and a 14% market share. The iPhone does not sell well in the Chinese market, which can also be glimpsed from the financial report. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2024 (the second quarter of calendar year 2024), Apple's revenue in Greater China decreased by 6.53% year-on-year to $14.728 billion.
Although the company began to implement the "price for volume" strategy, the sharp price discounts on the iPhone 15 series and older models, as well as channel promotions during the 618 period, have eased the decline. Expectations are high for the upcoming iPhone 16 series in September, and it remains to be seen whether the generative AI service Apple Intelligence will allow consumers to pull out their wallets.
In stark contrast, Huawei became the fastest-growing brand in the quarter, with shipments surging 57% year-on-year to 10.4 million units, ranking third with a market share of 15.4%. Huawei, which has made a strong comeback, has successively launched products such as the Mate 60 series, Mate X5, Pocket 2, Pura70 series, and nova 12 series, focusing on high-performance models, and is gradually seizing Apple's market share.
On August 5th, Huawei released a new generation of small folding mobile phone nova Flip, equipped with Xuanwu waterdrop hinge, Hongmeng Smart Communication 2.0 and other technologies, the body is as thin as 6.88mm after unfolding, and the starting price is 5288 yuan. This is the thinnest and cheapest small folding phone released by Huawei so far, and it may promote a new round of small folding replacement.
Also achieving double-digit growth were Xiaomi and Vivo. The former shipped 10 million units in the second quarter, with a market share of 14.8%, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%. The Redmi Turbo 3, released on April 10, is the first mobile phone to put the Snapdragon 8s Gen3 chip into less than 2,000 yuan, and it was sought after by the market as soon as it was launched.
vivo ranked first, with shipments up 13.9% year-on-year to 13.1 million units, with a market share of 19.4%, up 2 percentage points year-on-year, mainly driven by the low-end Y-series and high-end X-series. Thanks to the rich product layout, the blue factory ranks first in the market share of 1000~2000 yuan, 3000~4000 yuan and 4000~5000 yuan.