Counterpoint: iPhone once again the best selling phone in China after six years

Apple was the largest smartphone brand by market share in China for the October-December 2021 period, according to the latest figures by Counterpoint Research. Cupertino earned an impressive 23% market share after a stellar 79% quarterly growth, earning it the top spot for the first time since Q4 2015. The sales were 32% higher than last year, driven by strong demand of the iPhone 13 series and the vanilla model in particular.

Coming in at second place is vivo with its 19% market share though the company faced a 21% decline in shipments compared to Q3 2021. Oppo (including OnePlus) came in third place with a 17% market share, followed by Honor (15%), Xiaomi (13%), Huawei (7%) and Realme (3%). Realme saw the highest yearly growth out of all brands with 83% increase in sales between Q4 2020 and Q4 2021.

As a whole China’s smartphone market declined by 9% in Q4 while full-year sales were down 2%. Counterpoint’s Ivan Lam suggests the ongoing chip shortage alongside longer smartphone replacement cycles are to blame for poor sales. He also predicts OEMs will continue raising the average selling prices of their devices heading forward.

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