14 DAY TRIAL // Although recent statistics show that Apple’s global ranking is lower than Samsung’s, new information suggests that the Cupertino-based company surpassed the South Korean giant when it comes to imports to China in the first quarter of the year.
Digitimes Research has released a new report on smartphone shipments to China in Q1/2016, more specifically, for the period between January 1 and March 31. Over 104 million handsets were shipped to China, 11.2% fewer than in the previous quarter, but 20.1% more compared to last year. The Chinese market holds the biggest share in global total compared to any other market in the world, namely 33.8%.
Local vendors dominate the Chinese smartphone market by a long way. The report shows that China-based vendors shipped 83.0 million smartphones in total, amounting to a combined market share of 79.3%. International vendors’ shipments only reached 21.7 million units, about 20.7% of the market. The numbers indicate a 35.5% drop on quarter and 17.5% on year.
Apple, leading international vendor in China
The largest China-based vendor was, unsurprisingly, Huawei Technologies, with 14.1 million shipped smartphones, followed by Oppo with 12.2 million and BBK with 11.8 million. Xiaomi’s shipments amounted to 8.0 million units while all the other vendors had imports of below 6 million units. Xiaomi will surely record increases in the next quarter, considering that it has just launched the Mi Max phablet and the MIUI8 firmware.
There’s also some information on international vendors, with the report stating that Apple’s results are nearly double compared to Samsung’s shipments of 7.2 million units. Thus, Apple shipped 13.5 million smartphones to China while other manufacturers like HTC, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, LG Electronics, and Sony Mobile Communications failed to even surpass the 300,000 mark.
It’s safe to say that, when it comes to international vendors, only Apple and Samsung have a chance of competing against local manufacturers on China’s smartphone market. Results for Apple and Samsung might still increase, considering that the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge was launched not long ago and sales for the iPhone SE began in late March.