Fortunately for Apple, iPhone sales are experiencing an upward ascend in China. An analysis of smartphone sales in the market in the second quarter of 2020 reveal that Apple has the fastest OEM growth. Huawei captured 60% of the Chinese 5G smartphone market share. The statistics showed an encouraging growth for the industry which indicates the recovery phase after the slump experienced due to the global health crisis, COVID-19 pandemic.
Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, Mengmeng Zhang said,
“Although China’s commercial activities have resumed since the pandemic has subsided, consumer confidence remains low. Both OEMs and Chinese operators are actively pushing 5Gsmartphones through lowering prices of 5G devices as well as 5G plans. This has increased the adoption of 5G, with one-third of the total smartphone sales during the quarter were 5G devices, the highest adoption in the world. However, this was still not able to offset the overall market decline.”
iPhone Q2 2020 Sales in China
Apple’s 32% impressive year-on-year growth is attributed to two factors: the popularity of iPhone 11 series and the company’s seasonal discount deals. In this quarter, the lowest priced 2020 iPhone SE was also amongst the top 3 best selling iPhone.
The smartphone sales data also reveal that the Chinese market is gravitating towards devices with 5G network support. Thus, mid-to-high price range 5G smartphones from Huawei, Vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi grew in sales in 2020 Q2.
Senior Analyst at Counterpoint, Ethan Qi explained the trend as,
“Despite a slowdown in the smartphone market in China, Chinese OEMs have picked up the pace in 5G developments that were hampered by COVID-19 disruptions in Q1 2020. In Q2, 33% of smartphones sold were 5G enabled compared to just 16% in Q1. The proportion was even higher in June, where more than 40% of smartphones sold were 5G capable. China’s 5G smartphone market is quite consolidated with HOVX grabbing 96% of the market. Huawei leads in 5G smartphone sales accounting for 60% of the market, followed by Vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi. 5G smartphones in China are still priced in the mid-to-high price range of USD$400 and above, however, 5G smartphone prices are quickly moving towards lower-tier price bands. High-end 5G smartphones are predominantly from Huawei, while Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Vivo all have various offerings in the mid-tier.”
5G 2020 iPhone
As speculated, Apple will release the new flagship iPhone 12 series with 5G connectivity support. According to the latest reports, 2020 iPhones will support both mmWave and sub-6Hz 5G technology due to the uneven availability of the next-generation network by carriers.
However, that will change in 2021 for the company will ship the new iPhone 12 with just on supporting band to cut down on costs.
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