Huawei mobile phone, regain the first place in mobile phone sales!
On February 4, Counterpoint Research, a market research agency, released a report saying that Huawei regained the first place in smartphone sales in the first two weeks of 2024 and made a strong return to the Chinese market.
While Chinese smartphone brands are moving towards the high-end market, Apple's market share is being eroded. Under the trade-off, the pattern of the smartphone market is quietly changing.
Huawei is back strongly
According to the agency's research report, Huawei's mobile phones have made a strong return to the Chinese market in the first two weeks of 2024 as the No. 1 smartphone sales position. This is the first time since 2019 that Huawei has regained the championship.
The agency believes that the Mate60 series equipped with Huawei's self-developed Kirin 9000S chip is a key factor in Huawei's recent success. In addition, Huawei's strong brand loyalty and the launch of the HarmonyOS operating system are also important drivers of its growth.
At the end of August 2023, Huawei launched the new Mate 60 series, ** mobile phones are favored by consumers, and sales are extremely hot. In December, Huawei also launched the nova12 series, and the disassembly on the network shows that nova12 and pro, nova12 ultra and other products are equipped with Kirin processors and support 5G.
Since the fourth quarter of last year, the sales of Huawei mobile phones have risen significantly.
According to the IDC report, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei ranked 13The 9% market share ranked fourth in China's smartphone market in terms of shipments, with a year-on-year increase of 362%, back to the top five in the Chinese market.
After the release of the Huawei Mate60 series, Huawei has launched a plan for the full return of the Chinese market. As the plan continues to deepen, Huawei will return to the king again in 2024. At the same time, the Chinese smartphone market is becoming increasingly competitive.
The competitive landscape is changing
In the face of Huawei's strong comeback, Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo are also constantly launching new models, and the market competition in China's smartphone market is intensifying, and the market pattern is quietly changing.
According to data from Canalys, OPPO, Vivo, and Honor will have a stable market share of around 16% in 2023, and the three parties are evenly matched, with shipments ranging from 40 million to 45 million units. Huawei's full-year market share jumped to 12% from 8% in 2022, and shipments increased by 48% year-on-year.
According to Canalys analysts, Huawei became the biggest dark horse in the fourth quarter of 2023. China's mobile phone market, driven by Huawei's new flagship models, has seen a structural recovery, and the performance of the high-end market is getting better and better.
Huawei's re-entry into the battlefield has gradually intensified competition in the market. At present, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Honor, etc. are all in the critical period of impacting the high-end. With the increase of Huawei's production capacity, domestic brands will also usher in the real test of the high-end market.
Fierce competition is bound to catalyze continuous innovation. In order to maintain their market share, self-developed operating systems and generative AI strategies will be the two major levers for mobile phone manufacturers to build moats in 2024.
At the same time, as the pressure of Huawei's return gradually dips into the mass market, maintaining close cooperation with the channel is also an important strategy for other manufacturers to let go of market share.
Apple's sales in Greater China fell 13%.
While China's smartphones are rising rapidly, Apple's market share is being eroded.
Data shows that China's high-end smartphone market will grow by 27% in 2023. Apple maintains its leading position with its excellent performance in the first half of 2023. However, starting in the third quarter of 2023, Apple's market share is being seized by Chinese brands. It is expected that Chinese brands will continue to develop in the high-end market.
According to Apple's first quarter report for fiscal year 2024 (that is, the fourth quarter of 2023 calendar year), Apple achieved revenue of 208 in Greater China$200 million, far less than the market expectation of $23.5 billion.
Apple noted that in all regions except Greater China, Apple saw sales growth, while sales in Greater China were down nearly 13% from the same period last year.
Jefferies analysts said that despite the sharp price cuts of Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max on Chinese e-commerce platforms, iPhone sales were still down 30% in the first week of the new year from a year earlier.
The analyst believes that Apple's sales decline is mainly affected by the rise of local Chinese brands, especially Huawei, which has returned to the high-end market after releasing the new Mate 60 series in August last year.
Perhaps feeling the pressure, Apple launched a rare price reduction campaign on its Chinese mainland official website this year. Apple basically does it every year for the Spring Festival promotions, but this time it seems to be different. Not only is the discount great, but the most **iphone15 has also carried out a "diving" price reduction, falling below the 5000 yuan mark for the first time, and the lowest is only 4949 yuan.