China’s Smartphone Market Narrowed its Decline to -10.3% in Q2 2020 Amid Gloomy Consumer Sentiment, IDC Reports

BEIJING – According to the IDC Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 87.8 million smartphones were shipped in China during the second quarter of 2020, down 10.3% year-on-year. Evidently, consumer sentiment was a challenge but this was still a narrower figure compared to the first quarter’s 20.3% decline – resulting to a 14.9% contraction from the same period last year in H1 2020.

“China was slowly recovering in the second quarter while other regions were fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. This in turn allowed the Chinese vendors to expand their 5G product portfolio in their home market. In 2020Q2, almost half of the smartphones in China were shipped with 5G connectivity – ahead of other regions or countries,” says Will Wong, Research Manager for Client Devices at IDC Asia/Pacific.

2020Q2 Top 5 Smartphone Vendor Highlights:

• Huawei continued to capture a higher market share at 45.2% with its strong brand image and well-rounded product portfolio. The vendor successfully targeted the US$300-600 segment with its Huawei nova 7 and Honor 30 series, and enhanced its premium position with the Huawei P40 Pro series.
• vivo partnered with different 5G processor vendors in order to target various consumer segments at a different pricing. Furthermore, vivo managed to reposition its mid-range X series as a high-end product, while the S and iQOO series continued to enhance its market positions in the offline and online channels respectively.
• OPPO‘s A and Reno series continued to be the volume driver. In the OPPO’s 5G product lineup, its A92s model helped penetrate the US$300-400 segment. Meanwhile, its Reno 4 series played an important role in strengthening its position in the >US$400 segment. Each of these product series contributed more than a million units.
• Xiaomi leveraged the sales promotions in the “618” online shopping festival to maintain the momentum of its high-end Mi 10 series and mid-range Redmi K30 series. Nevertheless, the vendor’s growth will still be largely dependent on its performance in the US$150-250 segment.
• Apple achieved positive growth from a year ago in both its shipments and market share. The iPhone SE 2020 contributed 10% of its overall shipments and helped to stimulate its shipments during its offseason. Apple’s overall performance was supported by the “618” shopping festival and better offline-channel incentives.

In China, more than 43 million 5G smartphones were shipped in 2020Q2, with the weighted average selling price falling below US$500. Since the first 5G smartphone launched in 2019Q3, China has so far shipped a total of 67 million 5G handsets.

In the 5G space, Huawei Hisilicon was the largest supplier of 5G processors in China, followed by Qualcomm. While MediaTek has gained share with its cheaper processors, Samsung has also become a key supplier in the local market by partnering with vivo.

“A number of 5G models are getting attention for their aggressive prices at or below the RMB 2,000 (US$290) mark, but these have not been the bulk of the shipments yet. Nevertheless, as cheaper 5G processors are expected to launch in the second half of the year, this pricing segment will pick up its momentum,” says Xi Wang, Research Manager for Client System Research at IDC China.

To know more about the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, please contact Will Wong at wwong@idc.com. For media queries, please contact Charles Tamayo at cjtamayo@idc.com.