What They Say
Caixin reported the smartphone market in China dropped nearly 13% in December to 25.2 million units, although the number of new models released rose to 48 for the month. For the year, the number shipped was down 20.4% to 296 million units, 55% of which were 5G compatible. The drop was a consequence of the impact of the Covid crisis.
What We Think
Caixin was less clear than the original source on whether this was market data or manufacturing data. The source said it is ‘domestic mobile phone shipments’ which we take to mean the market, not the supply chain into other countries. We picked out a chart that shows the big drop in the share enjoyed by Chinese brands. That meant a ‘double whammy’ in terms of volume for those brands, with share and overall volume suffering. BR)
Figure 4 Shipment volume and proportion of domestic brand mobile phones
