In the calendar first quarter of 2020, Apple’s iPhone 11 reamined the best-selling smartphone in China, having topped China’s best-selling models list for 7 consecutive months.
Smartphone sales in China fell by 22% YoY and 24% QoQ in Q1 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 Pandemic, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Pulse—Monthly Smartphone Sales Tracking service. The top five OEMs HOVX (Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi) and Apple accounted for a record 93% of the market, up by 6 percentage points compared to last year.
Commenting on the overall Chinese smartphone market, Flora Tang, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement, “The drastic fall in Q1 China market was primarily dragged down by the dismal sales of smartphones in February (-35% YoY), when the country was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and commerce activities were minimal. However, during the lockdown period in China, local e-Commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com managed to sustain efficient business operations and delivery services in major Chinese cities outside of Hubei province. For the strong support from these e-Commerce players, China’s smartphone sales appeared less negative than our original expectation. We also estimate that the online share of smartphone sales in China surged to over 50% during Q1, from about 30% in 2019, though the share is likely to drop in Q2 after the pandemic is largely contained.”
About the competitive landscape of smartphone OEMs during the crisis, Ethan Qi, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint, commented, “Apple and Huawei group, managed to increase market share from the same period last year, clearly out-performing the overall market in Q1 2020. Huawei smartphone sales achieved 6% YoY growth and sales of iPhones mildly dropped by 1% only, while their counterparts suffered plummeting sales with double-digit declines. iPhone 11 was the best-selling smartphone model in Q1; it has topped China’s best-selling models list for 7 consecutive months. Consumers continued to purchase iPhones from e-commerce platforms despite the shutdown of Apple stores across China during February…”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple certainly did a remarkable job with iPhone 11.
Behold, Apple best-selling iPhone for the next 12 months! — MacDailyNews Take regarding the iPhone 11, September 10, 2019
