China Smartphones – April
After an unusually strong January and March, smartphone shipments in China settled back to a more ‘normalized’ pace, similar to rates seen through much of last year’s 2nd half, but returned to negative m/m and y/y comparisons of -23.8% and -34.1% respectively. While 5G smartphone shipments also declined 22.2% m/m they were still up 31.1% y/y and represented 77.8% of shipments for the month, the highest share rate seen since last June. We note that while 1Q shipments in China were strong in both absolute and relative terms, last year’s 1Q was unnatural to say the least, so we look more at the average y/y decline in 2H last year, which was -23.0%, very similar to the y/y decline in April of this year.
While the smartphone industry in China had high hopes for 2021 in terms of a return to growth, it seems that while certainly better than last year thus far, the industry is still facing growth issues this year. While it won’t be seen in Chinese shipment numbers, Chinese smartphone brands will be feeling the effects of both component shortages and the massive COVID-19 outbreak in India, where Chinese brands hold considerable sway.
While the smartphone industry in China had high hopes for 2021 in terms of a return to growth, it seems that while certainly better than last year thus far, the industry is still facing growth issues this year. While it won’t be seen in Chinese shipment numbers, Chinese smartphone brands will be feeling the effects of both component shortages and the massive COVID-19 outbreak in India, where Chinese brands hold considerable sway.
China Smartphone Shipments & Y/Y ROC - 2019 - 2021 YTD - Source: SCMR LLC, CAIST
China 5G Smartphone Shipments & Share - Source: SCMR LLC, CAIST
China - 5G Smartphones - Share - Total Shipped & New Models - Source: SCMR LLC, CAIST
China Smartphone Shipments - Long-Term - Source: SCMR LLC, CAIST
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