Worldwide smartphone shipments increased 0.8% year over year in Q3 2019 after seven quarters of decline and Huawei doubled down on China, according to IDC. In total, companies shipped a total of 358.3 million smartphones during the quarter, which was up 8.1% QoQ.
Top 5 smartphone companies by worldwide shipments in Q3 2019 are Samsung (78.2 million units), Huawei (66.6 million), Apple (46.6 million), Xiaomi (32.7 million), Oppo (31.2 million).
In China, greater consolidation toward the top 5 brands was the main trend in the quarter according to IDC. The top Chinese brands all increased their local shipments in preparation for Double 11 2019. The best selling smartphone brands during Double 11 are Apple, Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi.
The shipment of China’s smartphone market was about 98.9 million units in the third quarter of 2019, down 3.6% year-on-year according to data from IDC.
Huawei leads China’s smartphone market in Q3 2019 with 41.5 million units in shipment, an increase of 64.6% YoY. Vivo (18.1 million units), oppo (16.4 million units), Xiaomi (9.7 million units) and Apple (8.1 million units) rank the second to the fifth.
While the Changxiang and nova series were the volume drivers, the high-margin Mate and P series provided attractive channel margins. This strategy played a crucial role in sustaining Huawei’s performance in China.
Huawei shipped higher volumes than expected as it shifted focus to China domestic market, particularly in lower-tier cities. While a sentiment of nationalism has helped to bolster Huawei in China, solid relationships with the local channel players have been key.
Xiaomi for the first time saw less than a third of its shipments delivered domestically in China, which was second to India in volume. Xiaomi launched multiple smart devices ahead of Double 11 including several smartphones (Mi CC9 Pro, Mi Note 10, Redmi Note 8T), smart watch Mi Watch, and Mi TV 5.
Check out smart speaker market (led by Amazon and Alibaba), tablet market, and top factors for China smart device users’ purchase.
