Huawei is the new smartphone market share leader in China, reaching 27% in Q2
Published : Thursday, 26 July, 2018
The smartphone sales figures for China are rebounding in Q2 2018, which is very much welcome piece of news for the merchants and the entire sales network after a less-than-profitable Q1 that saw a drop of over 20% to just 91,000,000 devices. Huawei (and its subsidiary Honor) has increased its share of the market to an impressive 27%, which is more than any smartphone manufacturer managed to attain since Q2 2011. Another record breaking figure for Huawei was the top-ranking number of units shipped to the channel than any other vendor, with the number at 28.5 million devices. The second and third places were taken by Oppo and Vivo, respectively, where the latter having increased its numbers by 30% compared to Oppo. Even though Xiaomi and Apple have been losing ground in market share price, they've retained the fourth and fifth places. It's not easy for smaller merchants to keep up, since the top 5 are now covering 90% of the shipments, whereas just a year ago it was 73%.Huawei's Honor subsidiary increased its share in total Huawei shipments from 33% one year ago to 55%, and now dominates the rest of the brands belonging to the Huawei Consumer Business Group, say industry experts. The latest flagship phones allowed it to expand into the US$500+ category, while it is also slated to further decrease the share of its adversaries in the economy segment. However, the sub-brad's independence and its strengthening position on the market are posing a certain problem for the other brands under the Huawei umbrella brand – Nova, P and Mate. There is the issue of common resources that are being funneled to Honor rather than to them, with the purpose of attaining Huawei's global aim of selling 200,000,000 devices in 2018. Huawei models constitute about 45% of the total sell-in to China, and Nova is 50% of those sold under the Nova brand.
The market in China is bouncing back, with the rate of decline lowering from 22% to 8% between Q1 and Q2. However, no tangible improvement is to be expected anytime in the near future. The upcoming quarters are expected to see a further decline, particularly due to steep drops in smaller merchants' shipments, which have a difficult time competing and can not justify further marketplace investments. Meanwhile the current situation related to the trade relations with the United States, which is negatively affecting the Chinese yuan, and making an impact on the stability of the major manufacturers. A brand as strong as Huawei can withstand the growing prices and preserve its share of the market, while for Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo the task will not be an easy one.
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