Huawei reclaims top spot in China’s smartphone sales ranking, its first time back since company was added to US blacklist

Huawei Technologies climbed back to the No 1 spot of China’s smartphone market in the initial two weeks of this year, according to a report by research firm Counterpoint, putting more pressure on 2023 industry leader Apple and major mainland rivals in the world’s largest handset market.

This marks the first time Huawei reclaimed the top smartphone sales ranking on the mainland since Washington imposed sanctions on the Shenzhen-based company when it was added to the US trade blacklist in May 2019, which crippled the firm’s once-lucrative handset business, according to the report on Sunday by Counterpoint research analysts Ivan Lam and Zhang Mengmeng.

The Counterpoint report, however, indicated that Huawei still faced cutthroat competition on the mainland against Apple and major domestic handset vendors that include Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, which continue to launch high-end smartphone models.

China’s smartphone industry showed signs of recovery in 2023, when shipments grew 6.5 per cent year on year to 289 million units, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Domestic brands made up 231 million units, or around 80 per cent, of total shipments.

The mainland’s high-end handset segment sales also grew 37 per cent last year, despite overall weakness in the global smartphone industry, Counterpoint data showed. While Apple led that market segment in the country in the first half of last year, the iPhone maker’s sales started to get squeezed in the third quarter amid a strong push by Chinese vendors led by Huawei

Apple’s weekly smartphone shipments in China have declined by 30 to 40 per cent in recent weeks, according to a recent research note by Kuo Ming-chi, a TF International Securities analyst known for his accurate assessment of Apple’s business. Kuo expected this downward trend to continue this year.

“The main reason for the decline is the return of Huawei and the fact that foldable phones have gradually become the first choice for high-end users in the Chinese market,” Kuo wrote in the note.

Still, Apple’s share in that segment was down from 75 per cent in 2022 amid the resurgence of Huawei on the mainland and the gains made by Samsung Electronics, the report said.

In a rare move, Apple last month offered Chinese consumers discounts of up to 800 yuan (US$113) on a range of products, from iPhones to MacBooks, ahead of the Lunar New Year to fend off competition from the likes of Xiaomi and Honor, which also cut their handset prices.