vivo Topped China Smartphone Market in Q3 2022
According to new research from Strategy Analytics, China smartphone shipments fell -16% YoY to 67 million units in Q3 2022. vivo regained the top position with 21% market share, followed by OPPO (including OnePlus), Honor, Apple, and Xiaomi. Within Top 5 players, only Apple delivered the annual growth this quarter.
Exhibit 1: China Smartphone Shipments & Marketshare in Q3 2022* Numbers are rounded. (Source: Strategy Analytics, Inc.)
Yiwen Wu, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, “China smartphone shipments declined to 66.9 million units in Q3 2022, down -16.0% YoY. It is the sixth consecutive quarter of annual decline by smartphone shipments. Inventory adjustments and the weakening demand blaming the macro-economic headwinds weighted on the mixed performance.”
Linda Sui, Senior Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “vivo regained the top position in China in Q3 2022 with 14.3 million units of smartphones shipments. Its shipments however fell -21% YoY and its volume share declined to 21% from 23% a year ago. vivo refreshed its product portfolio this quarter and we saw the steady progress in premium segment and online channel. X series helped the company enhance brand awareness among affluent users and young people. Meanwhile, the refreshed iQOO series continue to shine in online segment. OPPO (OnePlus) combined ranked second with 12.2 million units of shipments, seizing 18% market share in Q3 2022. OPPO (OnePlus) posted the largest annual decline (-27% YoY) this quarter among the top 5 vendors. OPPO was less aggressive on new product launch this quarter in home market amid the economy uncertainties. Reno 8 series on high end and affordable 5G A models remained in the best-selling list. We recommend the company to take feasible actions to stabilize the performance in China market.”
Peng Peng, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, “Honor yielded the top position to vivo in Q3 and ranked the third place with 12.1 million units of smartphone shipments. Honor’s impressive resilient journey hit a pause and it delivered -15% YoY annual decline in home market. Honor slowed down its product launch cycle in Q3 and only introduced X40i and X40 in home market. We expect the competition between Honor and vivo for the top position will become intensified in the following quarters. Apple ranked fourth with 10.3 million units of iPhone shipments and 15% volume share this quarter, up from 13% one year ago. Apple outperformed the overall market and posted +3% YoY growth rate. It is the only vendor with the annual growth rate among top 5 players. The growth mainly came from the attractive price discounts on iPhone 13 series and the healthy demand of the newly launched iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max in top tier cities.”
Yiwen Wu, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, added, “Xiaomi dropped to the fifth position in China with 9.0 million units of shipments this quarter. Its shipments fell -16% YoY, on par with the overall market. Xiaomi brought female-oriented Civi 2, online-focused Redmi K50, ultra-premium Mi 12s Ultra and Mix Fold 2 into the market in Q3. These models represent Xiaomi’s latest efforts to expand addressable markets. Xiaomi is facing tough competition in the online market mainly from Honor. Meanwhile, its aggressive offline expansion has slowed down. We expect China smartphone market will maintain the downturn track in the following quarters under the continued COVID disruptions and economic headwinds. The high-end segment would outperform mass market thanks to the deep pocket of affluent users amid economic uncertainties. We would recommend leading Chinese brands to launch more differentiated products to tackle high end segment. Meanwhile, cautiously managing inventories is another challenge for all vendors in the following quarters.”
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