China's July Mobile Phone Shipments Rebound... Focus on iPhone 16 Performance

Last month, as China's mobile phone shipments rebounded, attention is focused on the performance of Apple's iPhone 16 series, scheduled for release next month.

According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) on the 28th, China's mobile phone shipments in July totaled 24.2 million units, a 30.5% increase compared to the same period last year. Accordingly, the cumulative shipments from January to July were recorded at 171 million units, a 15.3% increase over the same period.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

The Chinese state-run media Global Times (GT), citing analysts' analysis, said that this increase in shipments reflects an overall recovery in consumption of digital and eco-friendly products.

It is also noteworthy whether the market recovery trend could affect the performance of Apple's iPhone 16 series, scheduled for release on the 9th of next month. According to global research firms such as IDC and Canalys, iPhone shipments in the Chinese market in the second quarter decreased by 3.1% year-on-year, losing ground to Chinese brands such as Vivo, Huawei, Oppo, Honor, and Xiaomi, and falling out of the top 5 locally. This is the first time in four years that the iPhone has lost its top 5 position.

IDC raised its shipment growth forecast for this year from the previous 4% to 5.8%, supported by the recovery in consumer demand, the trend of enhanced artificial intelligence (AI) features in the global mobile phone market, and the recovery in the first half of the year, projecting the total shipments to reach 1.23 billion units.

Industry expert Pu Liang explained, "The strong recovery in the domestic market came after a long period of consumers delaying new purchases," adding, "It is combined with new demand for better hardware such as memory and computing power in the AI era." He predicted, "Domestic companies will release more low-priced products to ride this trend, and shipments in the second half of the year will increase further."

According to CAICT, the recovery in shipments in the first half of the year was led by 5G devices, which reached 20.65 million units in July, a 37.2% increase compared to last year. From January to July, the growth rate was 23.6% year-on-year, accounting for 84.8% of smartphones shipped during the same period.