IDC released the quarterly tracking report of smartphones, showing that in Q4 2018, China’s smartphone market shipments were about 103 million units, a year-on-year decline of 9.7%. Among them, Huawei’s smartphone shipments ranked first, with the market share reaching up to 29% in Q4 2018; OPPO and VIVO ranked second and third, with the market share of 19.6% and 18.8%, respectively; Apple ranked fourth, with a market share of 11.5%; and Xiaomi is the fifth, with a market share of 10.0%.
Also Read: China’s Smartphone Market Fell 14% In 2018
In the whole year, due to the slowdown in the macroeconomic growth, the long-term replacement cycle of consumers, and the diversion of fragmented smart terminals, the overall market shipments of domestic smartphones reached 397 million units in 2018, a year-on-year decline of 10%. The performances of the top five vendors are presented below. Among them, Huawei and VIVO have shown growth despite the trend, and Apple’s decline has reached 11.7%. But the most noteworthy performance belongs to Xiaomi, and it’s not good as you may think. The company fared even worse in the final months of last year when shipments plunged almost 35%.
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Wang Xi, a senior analyst of IDC China, said: ‘The domestic smartphone market environment in 2019 doesn’t look very optimistic. 5G phones will still only comprise a very small portion of the overall market. We’ve a long way to go before they become mainstream.’
Another thing we should pay attention to is the bad performance of the Cupertino-based company and the South Korean Samsung. The lack of innovations discourages consumers from replacing devices as often as they used to. Plus, these big players should bear the thought that there is another top brand, coming from China. It’s Huawei.