Current smartphone shipment data released by research firm, IDC show that China-based manufacturers such as Huawei, OPPO and Vivo somehow continued to ramp up their production and shipments even as Apple suffered a major regression in shipments of iPhone devices to the Chinese market in the first quarter of 2017. The data showed that iPhone shipments by Apple in China slide 26.7% on year to 9.6 million units in the first quarter, which accounts for a 9.2% share compared to 11% recorded in the last quarter of 2016 and 12.7% of a year earlier. According to Apple’s latest financial report, its revenues generated from the China market slumped by 12% on year to US$16.2 billion in the first quarter.
The data showed that iPhone shipments by Apple in China slide 26.7% on year to 9.6 million units in the first quarter, which accounts for a 9.2% share compared to 11% recorded in the last quarter of 2016 and 12.7% of a year earlier. According to Apple’s latest financial report, its revenues generated from the China market slumped by 12% on year to US$16.2 billion in the first quarter.
While Apple was experiencing this deterioration in China, Huawei returned to the top position, displacing their local rival OPPO by ramping up its shipments by 25.5% year on year to 20.8 million units in the first quarter. Huawei also saw its share climb to 20% in the quarter, up from 16.8% a quarter earlier and 16% a year earlier, IDC said.
OPPO on the other hand, ranked second with shipments totalling 18.9 million units for an 18.2% share, while Vivo shipped 14.6 million and took the third position with a 14.1% share.
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According to the IDC report, the Chinese market, in the first quarter of 2017 received 104.1 million smartphones which represent a mere 1% on-year growth. This is an indication of the near saturation the Chinese market is currently gearing towards. Smartphone makers release new devices by the day and competition gets keener. Even the top three domestic vendors are unrelenting in their drive to maintain their lead. Huawei recently established more than 1,000 experience shops in core cities in China in its bid to counter the rivals OPPO and Vivo who gained successes by exploring both offline and online sales channels. Huawei is also rumoured as planning to set up over 15,000 retail shops globally. Currently, OPPO has a total of over 200,000 online and offline sales outlets in China, while Vivo has 250,000 offline sales outlets, according to the source. Xiaomi is also looking to increase it offline presence in China with additional offline stores. No doubt, we’ll get the full picture of the winners and losers at the end of the year.
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