Slowdown in China’s Smartphone Market: Local Brands Dominate as Foreign Products Struggle to Keep Up

In February 2024, China’s smartphone market experienced a significant decline after showing positive growth in January. According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, smartphone shipments dropped by over 30% compared to the previous year, totaling 14 million units. Local brands dominated the market, accounting for approximately 83% of total shipments, while foreign products, such as Apple’s iPhone, only made up around 2.4 million units, marking a 31.7% decrease from the previous year.

In January, total smartphone shipments surged by 61.4% to 29.5 million units, with local brands seeing a 165% increase. When looking at the first two months of 2024, total smartphone shipments increased by 12.5% to 43.6 million units, with 5G models experiencing a growth of 13.3% and totaling 38.7 million units shipped.

However, the surge in demand was short-lived as analysts like Kuo Ming-Chi from TF International Securities have predicted a decline of about 15% in annual iPhone shipments due to declining demand and rapidly changing market dynamics in China’s competitive smartphone industry. This trend poses a significant challenge for all major players in the industry who will need innovative and adaptive strategies to maintain their market share in this dynamic environment.