In the first quarter of 2022, China’s smartphone market saw about 74.2 million units shipment, a year-on-year decrease of 14.1%, according to data from IDC.

The impact of the continuous rebound of the epidemic on consumers’ budgets and the small upgrading range of new products have led to the continuous downturn of market demand.

The more uncertain overseas market prospect has led many mobile phone manufacturers to adopt more stable and conservative operation strategies, and the market will face great challenges throughout the year.

Oppo ranked first in terms of domestic smartphone shipment market share in the first quarter, followed by Honor, with a very high year-on-year increase, Vivo in the third place, Apple in the fourth place, and Xiaomi in fifth place.

At the same time, the negative impact of the current domestic epidemic on the logistics and supply side of the mobile phone market is relatively controllable, which brings about the delay in meeting part of the demand.

If there is no additional positive stimulus, the capacity of China’s smartphone market may fall below the 300 million mark in 2022, according to IDC.

Vivo has the largest market share of 19.7% by total smartphone sales, according to Counterpoint, followed by Oppo (18%), apple (17.9%), Honor (16.9%), Xiaomi (14.9%), and Huawei (6.2%). In the first quarter, domestic mobile phone sales fell 14% year-on-year to 74.2 million.

Smartphone shipment in China up 1.1% in 2021; Apple has 15.3% share

In 2021, the total shipments of mobile phones in China’s domestic market totaled 351 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.9%, according to China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

In 2021, the shipments of domestic brand mobile phones in China totaled 304 million, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%, accounting for 86.6% of the mobile phone shipments in the same period. In other words, nearly 87 people buy domestic mobile phones among every 100 people’s purchase.

In 2021, 5G mobile phones shipped 266 million units, with a year-on-year increase of 63.5%, accounting for 75.9% of mobile phone shipments in the same period. In November and December 2021, 5G mobile phones accounted for more than 80%.

In 2021, 329.3 million smartphones shipped in China, with a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 1.1%, according to IDC.

Throughout 2021, 404 new models of smartphones were listed, with a year-on-year increase of 11.0%, accounting for 83.6% of the number of new models listed in the same period. It can be seen that functional phones still have a huge audience.

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Apple and Vivo took the top spot in the last quarter of 2021 and the full year 2021, respectively. Honor continued its momentum in Q4 2021 and gained another spot from the previous quarter. More intense competition is coming in 2022 according to IDC.

In 2021, Apple’s smartphone shipment reached more than 50 million and it also had the largest growth among the top 5 vendors. Honor continued its growth in Q4 2021 with the launch of the Honor 60 series and X30 series in December.

Vivo ranked first in full-year 2021 and achieve a better market position in the >US$400 market and online channels.

Oppo ranked the second spot in 2021, with the K, Reno, and Find series achieving a higher share of its portfolio compared to last year. In Q4, the launch of the Reno 7 series also strengthened Oppo’s position in the US$300-500 price segment.

Xiaomi ranked third in 2021.

In 2021, the Chinese market shipped 1.5 million foldable smartphones with only 0.5% share.

Get an overview of China’s mobile apps market here.