Huawei Is Making A Strong Comeback By Claiming The No.1 spot In China's Smartphone Sales So Far

Recently, market research agency Counterpoint Research released their newest report, saying that, according to the latest data, Huawei had made a strong comeback to the Chinese market in the first two weeks of 2024 by taking the number one spot in smartphone sales.

Since the implementation of US sanctions in 2019, Huawei's market share has consistently been in decline, but this recent surge marks the first time the company has reclaimed its position at the top.

The report noted that Huawei's return to the top was largely due to the success of the Mate 60 series, which employs Huawei's independently developed Kirin 9000S chip. In addition, Huawei's strong brand loyalty, along with the successful launch of the HarmonyOS operating system, have both contributed to the company's success.

The report also mentioned a shift towards the high-end market for Chinese brands: In 2023, the market for high-end smartphones in China grew by 27%. Thanks to impressive performance in the first half of 2023, Apple managed to maintain its leadership position in the market.

However, beginning in the third quarter, Apple's market share started to be nibbled away by Huawei and other Chinese brands. It is expected that Chinese brands will continue to strive in the high-end market.

Another earlier report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that by the fourth quarter of 2023, China's smartphone market had shipped about 73.63 million units, an increase of 1.2% year on year.

Although the overall market has returned to a growth trend, the market's performance was clearly below expectations. Regarding the market share, Apple took the lead in the domestic market, followed by Honor, vivo, Huawei, and OPPO.

There has been a lot of chatter regarding the impact on Huawei's Honor series as the Huawei Mate 60 series made a strong comeback in the second half of last year. However, despite the speculation, Honor did not experience a slump and actually claimed the title of top domestic phone maker.

For 2023 as a whole, Apple took first place, thanks to significant sales promotion in third-party channels that attracted consumer demand. Honor came in second, significantly boosting its share in the market for devices over $800, largely due to its foldable screen products. OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi rounded out the top five.

Despite the return to growth in the Chinese smartphone market, IDC's senior analyst suggested adopting a cautiously optimistic attitude toward the market's performance in 2024, and some cell phone distributors still think there are challenges for Huawei to regain the high-end market from Apple.

Nonetheless, by overtaking Apple as the No.1 phone seller in 2024, it looks like Huawei just made the first step toward challenging Apple's market shares in China.