Korean Media: In China's Smartphone Market, Huawei and Apple Surge Ahead While Samsung Struggles
On August 28, South Korean media outlet Edaily published an article stating that analysis shows China's smartphone market has weakened due to soaring memory prices leading to production cuts and price hikes, intensifying market polarization. Meanwhile, Huawei and Apple continue their strong growth. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics, which competes globally with Apple for market leadership, failed to enter the top six brands in China.
Data released by global market research firm Counterpoint Research indicates that China's smartphone shipments declined by 2% in Q2 2026. This downturn stems from smartphone manufacturers adopting conservative production plans amid rising memory costs, prioritizing profitability over expanding shipment volumes. As a result, output of low-end products has decreased while supply of high-margin premium devices has increased—clearly highlighting the market’s growing polarization.
In this survey, Apple secured second place with a 18% market share. Despite rising component costs and price increases across the Android ecosystem, Apple maintained a relatively stable pricing strategy, achieving a year-on-year shipment increase of 23%. Conversely, Samsung Electronics, which competes with Apple for the top two spots globally in smartphone market share, did not make it into the top six Chinese brands (Huawei, Apple, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor). Instead, it struggled, falling into the “Others” category with less than 3% market share.
Among domestic Chinese brands, Huawei retained its leading position with a 23% market share—the highest since Q4 2020—driven primarily by the success of the "Enjoy 90 Pro Max" and increased shipments of its new wide-screen foldable smartphone, the "Pura X Max," resulting in a 24% year-on-year increase in shipments.
In contrast, mainstream Android smartphone manufacturers adopted strategies of reducing shipment volumes and raising prices to protect profitability. Vivo (16%) and OPPO (16%) launched new models such as the S60 series, Y600 Pro, and Reno 16 series to defend their positions in the mid-to-low-end markets; Xiaomi (13%) strengthened its market foothold with the Redmi K90 series; Honor (11%) enhanced its market influence through the X80 series and high-end foldable smartphones like the Magic V6. However, these efforts were insufficient to halt the overall decline in shipments.
It is expected that pressure on China's smartphone market will intensify further in the second half of the year. Thanks to pre-secured memory inventories acquired prior to this year’s first half, price increases have been delayed, resulting in only a 3% year-on-year decline in first-half shipments. Nevertheless, analysts predict that as new high-cost memory inventories enter the market, price hikes in the second half are inevitable, potentially leading to a drop in consumer demand.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1874768314332172/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.