Having ramped up their combined smartphone shipments by 6.5% on year to 192 million units in the third quarter of 2018, China-based vendors are likely to see a single-digit shipment decrease in the fourth quarter due to weakening demand in the domestic market and competition resulting from the availability of new iPhone devices, according to Digitimes Research.
The on-year growth registered in the third quarter stemmed mainly from increased shipments from Huawei, which saw its overseas shipments expand seven million units on year in the quarter, buoyed by its strong deployment in the sub-EUR200 (US$229) segment in Europe, says Digitimes Research.
Xiaomi still counted on overseas demand to drive its shipment growth in the third quarter, but the pace of the growth has subdued significantly as compared to the exponential expansion seen a year ago.
Third and fourth ranked Oppo and Vivo, which have focused more on the domestic market, saw mostly flat shipment results in the third quarter as their market shares in the home market were eroded by increasing competition from Huawei and Xiaomi.
Looking into the fourth quarter, Huawei and Xiaomi will continue to see their shipments grow slightly in the quarter, but shipments from Oppo and Vivo may drop by 5-7 million units each as compared to a year earlier, Digitimes Research estimates.