Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) led a resurgence in China’s smartphone market, which shook off oversupply issues and an ailing economy to register double-digit growth last month.
Phone sales in the world’s biggest mobile market were up 11 percent in the first four weeks of last month compared with the same period a year earlier, Counterpoint Research data showed.
Huawei improved by 83 percent, while Xiaomi was up by one-third. Apple Inc’s latest iPhone has had an unusually muted debut in China this year, and domestic rivals are capitalizing with a wide range of new products.
Photo: AFP
Huawei accounted for the bulk of the growth with its new Mate 60 series of phones, Counterpoint said.
The electronics maker sparked global attention and consumer demand by introducing handsets powered by a novel made-in-China 5G chip, which it also added to an upgraded foldable model in the Mate X5.
China’s mobile industry had been mired in a prolonged contraction, following an inventory glut built up a year ago in the midst of COVID-19 Zero lockdowns. Contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co have in the past few weeks said they see that inventory adjustment coming to an end and orders returning to growth.
South Korea, home to Samsung and SK Hynix Inc, yesterday reported that memorychip exports increased last month for the first time in 16 months, offering more evidence for the revival of demand for the country’s most important products.
Memory exports rose 1 percent from a year ago after dropping 18 percent in September, South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy data showed.
Multi-chip packages led the rebound, rising 12.2 percent, while the sales of DRAM — the most lucrative category — narrowed their decline to single digits for the first time in more than a year.
The problem for Chinese phone makers has inverted, as Huawei is struggling to produce enough units to satisfy unexpectedly high demand, while Xiaomi’s 14 series has received more than 1 million orders since last month’s launch, Counterpoint said.
The Chinese companies’ success could suggest challenges for Apple Inc, the world’s most valuable company. It has earned almost 20 percent of its revenue from greater China in the past few quarters.
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