Foreign-brand phone shipments to China rose 1.8% in April, CAICT data shows

Foreign-branded smartphone shipments to China increased 1.8% year-on-year in April to 3.59 million handsets. Growth decelerated compared with the first quarter, when foreign-brand shipments rose much faster, with estimates around 52% year-on-year. Apple dominates foreign-brand shipments in China, making the foreign-brand category a proxy for iPhone shipments, though it is imperfect. iPhone shipments were recorded at 13.1 million units in Q1, up about 42% from a year earlier. The overall Chinese smartphone market declined 3.3% in Q1 to about 69 million units, with Huawei reclaiming the top position and Apple second. Premium growth came mainly from Huawei and Apple, while Xiaomi shipments fell 35% in Q1. The April slowdown may relate to Apple’s relative pricing advantage as memory chip prices rose, helping iPhones avoid broader price hikes affecting other brands.

"Foreign-branded smartphone shipments to China, a category dominated by Apple, rose 1.8% year-on-year in April to 3.59 million handsets, according to Reuters calculations based on figures published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the government-run research body that tracks domestic handset shipments. The number is a meaningful deceleration. Foreign-brand shipments to China grew at a much faster clip through the first quarter, with one read of the CAICT data putting the figure at around 52% year-on-year for the period and Counterpoint Research recording iPhone shipments specifically of 13.1 million units in Q1, up from 9.2 million a year earlier, a rise of roughly 42%."

"The CAICT data does not break out individual vendors. Apple is by some distance the largest foreign brand in the Chinese smartphone market, and the foreign-brand line item is read by analysts as a useful, if imperfect, proxy for iPhone shipments specifically. Samsung, Sony and a handful of niche brands together account for the rest of the foreign-brand bucket."

"The wider Chinese smartphone market is no longer growing. Total shipments fell 3.3% in the first quarter to roughly 69 million units, per IDC, with Huawei reclaiming the top spot for the first time in five years and Apple holding second place. The two firms together drove most of what little premium-segment growth there was in the quarter, with Huawei's Mate 80 series and the foldable Pura X performing strongly alongside Apple's iPhone 17 line. Xiaomi's shipments collapsed by 35% over the same period."

"The April slowdown for foreign brands has several plausible drivers. Counterpoint and other trackers have pointed to Apple's relative pricing advantage as memory chip prices have risen, with iPhones avoiding the broad price hikes that hit Xiaomi and Oppo. That pricing edge concentrated dema"

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