According to DIGITIMES' statistics and analysis, the fourth quarter of 2024 was a peak season for non-Chinese (overseas) markets, while the Chinese market coincided with the Singles' Day shopping promotion period, driving an overall quarter-on-quarter shipment increase of 8.6% and a year-on-year growth of 5.2% for Chinese smartphone brands for the quarter.
Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2025, demand in overseas markets is expected to weaken, with Chinese smartphone shipments projected to decline by nearly 10% quarter-on-quarter.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Chinese smartphone brands shipped a total of more than 190 million devices. In terms of shipments by brand tier, the combined quarter-on-quarter shipment growth rate of the top three brands – Xiaomi, Oppo, and Transsion – was lower than that of Vivo, Honor, Lenovo, and Huawei, the top 4-7 brands, combined. As a result, the top three brands only accounted for 55.8% of the total shipments, down from 57.8% in the previous quarter.
Chart 1: Key factors affecting the 4Q24 and 1Q25 China smartphone industry: Supply
Chart 2: Key factors affecting the 4Q24 and 1Q25 China smartphone industry: Demand
Chart 3: China smartphone industry shipments, 4Q23-1Q25 (m units)
Chart 8: China smartphone industry's export shipments, 4Q23-1Q25 (m units)
Chart 9: Export shipments by Chinese vendor, 4Q23-1Q25 (m units)
Chart 11: China smartphone industry shipments, 2020-2024 (m units)
