Domestic Players Dominate China's Smartphone Market

Even though the iPhone X was “the most popular smartphone in all of China last quarter” according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Cupertino-based company was not among the Top 4 brands in the world’s largest smartphone market in the first three months of 2018.

According to Canalys Analytics, domestic players, led by Huawei and Oppo, dominated the market in the first quarter of 2018 with the top 4 brands, all of them Chinese, accounting for more than 70 percent of total shipments.

Smartphone shipments in China dropped by more than 20 percent last quarter to the lowest level since the end of 2013. Huawei (up 2 percent) and Xiaomi (up 37 percent) were the only companies in the top 10 to buck the negative trend, with the latter focusing on the low-cost segment to bolster its market share. Canalys expects the Chinese market to rebound in the second quarter as “new smartphones will definitely entice people to upgrade”, according to Canalys analyst Mo Jia.