[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Major foreign media reported on the 11th (local time) that smartphone shipments in China, the world's largest smartphone market, plummeted by more than 20% last year.
According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, smartphone shipments in China last year totaled 296 million units, a 20.4% decrease compared to the previous year (372 million units).
This is interpreted as a direct hit from the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at the beginning of last year on supply chains and smartphone replacement demand. CAICT explained that the replacement cycle for consumers' smartphones has also lengthened.
The decline in 2019, one year earlier, was 4%. Manufacturers expected that from 2020, with the full-scale demand for 5G, smartphone shipment volumes would increase, but these expectations were not met. In particular, despite Apple and Huawei releasing their flagship models, the iPhone 12 and Mate 40 respectively, in the second half of the year, the downward trend continued.
By manufacturer, in the first half of the year, shipment volumes of Chinese brands Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi sharply declined. On the other hand, Huawei, which was at the center of the US-China trade war, saw its domestic market share increase due to patriotic demand and other factors. However, this atmosphere changed in the second half of the year as US sanctions against Huawei intensified. Major foreign media added that Huawei experienced disruptions in parts supply, and competitors such as Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi expanded production to capture Huawei's market share.
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