China’s smartphone sales declined for 10 consecutive weeks since the sixth week of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021, according to Counterpoint Research’s China Weekly Sales Tracker.
Apple’s iPhone sales volume increased year-over-year until the 10th week, but even iPhone sales started to decrease as iPhone 13 series sales declined.
Counterpoint says that weakened consumer sentiment caused by the Chinese government’s “dynamic zero-Covid” policy was one of the main drivers for the decline in smartphone sales. From the end of January, during the Beijing Winter Olympics, smartphone sales began to decline year-over-year as the Chinese government strengthened quarantine measures, notes the research group. Again, at the end of March, sales fell further as a lockdown of major cities such as Shanghai began. However, the Chinese consumer sentiment picked up during the Labor Day holiday, so we expect to see some recovery.
Major brands couldn’t avoid this overall market contraction. Major Chinese smartphone brands, except Honor, failed to avoid the impact and their sales declined year-over-year. Huawei and OPPO showed more sales drop than market average for 15 weeks. Meanwhile, Xiaomi momentarily exceeded the previous year’s sales due to the launch of the Redmi K40s and Redmi K50 series, but this rebound didn’t last long.
