Recently, IDC released the China Mobile Phone Quarterly Tracker for the third quarter of 2022. According to the data, in the third quarter of 2022, China’s smartphone market shipped about 71.13 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 11.9%. Among them, the ranking of Top 5 has been adjusted, and vivo ranked first in domestic market shipments in the third quarter, with a market share of 20.0%. Honor’s market share remained at 17.9%. The Honor 70 series has maintained its rapid growth since its launch. OPPO’s market share is 16.3%, ranking third. It has increased investment in products and created a boutique route. Xiaomi shipped about 9 million units in the third quarter, accounting for 12.7% of the market.
Although the decline narrowed for the first time this year, market demand continued to be sluggish in the first half of the year. The overall market downturn has made manufacturers maintain a relatively stable and conservative operation strategy and continue to reduce the inventory level in an orderly manner. However, the high-end market above US$600 was less affected, with an overall share of 22.4%, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percentage points and a month-on-month increase of 2.3 percentage points.
Folding screen products in the high-end market are eye-catching and maintain a trend of rapid growth. In the third quarter of 2022, China’s single-quarter shipments of folding screen products exceeded 1 million, a year-on-year increase of about 246%, the largest single-quarter shipment in history. Among them, Huawei still occupies the first position in the domestic folding screen market, with a market share of 44.9%; the sales of Samsung’s Z Fold4 and Z Flip4 products are significantly better than the previous generation products, ranking second, occupying 22.2% of the market The newly released X Fold+ series also helped vivo rise to third place in the folding screen market, with a market share of 11.9%.
Affected by factors such as the economic environment at home and abroad, the domestic smartphone market will continue to be sluggish, and it will be difficult to recover in the short term, and the prospects are not optimistic. Faced with this dilemma, brands may change their aggressive strategies and turn to pragmatism and prudence. While reasonably and effectively controlling the inventory level, continue to maintain or even increase investment in product research and development, whether in terms of hardware or software, strive to create differentiated and competitive products to attract consumers . When the economy is in a downturn, it is often the time when the industry is reshuffled. We will wait and see how mobile phone brands will collide in the future and how the top ranking will change.