Smartphone shipments in China continued their downward slide in the second quarter of the year, falling 4.3% to 66 million units compared to the same period a year ago, according to research firm IDC. The drop marks the fifth quarter in a row that sales have declined, and shipments for the first half of the year were also down 4.2% year over year.
The culprit behind the slowdown, IDC says, is a surge in the cost of memory chips and other key components, which led most manufacturers to raise prices or eliminate lower-cost models from their lineups. That strategy left many consumers unwilling to spend more on an upgrade.
Two brands stood apart from the rest: Huawei Technologies and Apple. Huawei saw its shipments jump 19.4%, while Apple posted a 24.4% increase — making them the only major vendors to record growth during the quarter.
Arthur Guo, a senior analyst at IDC China, explained why those two companies fared better: “Huawei and Apple held their prices steady while competitors were raising theirs, and that gave hesitant buyers a reason to go ahead and purchase in a quarter when most of the market was giving them a reason to wait.”
Huawei led the market with a 22.6% share, while Apple came in second at 18.1%. Among the brands that struggled, Xiaomi — ranked fifth overall — saw its shipments tumble 21.7%. Oppo and Vivo also posted declines of 9.7% and 11.4%, respectively.
IDC also noted that the gradual disappearance of government subsidy programs, which had helped prop up consumer demand in previous quarters, further contributed to the market’s decline.
