Apple Inc and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀) were the top smartphone makers in China in the first quarter this year, in a market that is still shrinking following a year of economic disruptions.
Shenzhen-based Oppo had the biggest share of shipments, at 19.6 percent, IDC data showed, with Apple’s iPhone following close behind.
Counterpoint and Canalys estimates, which look at sales and shipments, handed Apple the narrow lead.
Photo: Bloomberg
The US electronics firm clinched the top spot in the final three months of last year following the release of its iPhone 14 and 14 Pro series.
The Chinese smartphone market registered double-digit contractions for most of the past year, first with steep drops in sales of Android handsets, such as those made by Oppo, and eventually affecting even Apple’s iPhone range.
Shipments to China excluding Hong Kong and Macau declined 11 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to the lowest first-quarter levels in a decade, Canalys said.
Price cuts of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models helped in February, IDC said, although the introduction of a new yellow iPhone 14 handset failed to stir major excitement.
Apple debuted the new color option early last month hoping to keep buyers interested in the pricey device, which costs at least 5,999 yuan (US$866) in China.
Oppo sold more premium devices than expected in the past quarter, IDC said.
It got a boost from its sub-brand OnePlus returning to the domestic market, along with a positive reception to its foldable devices.
Samsung Electronics Co, the global leader in smartphones and foldables, has only a small presence in China, where every local phone maker now has at least one foldable model on sale.
None of the top five biggest vendors in China recorded positive growth.
Vivo, Honor Mobile (榮耀) and Xiaomi Corp (小米) rounded out the leading brands, each with significant declines on the same period last year.
Smartphone production is down 13.8 percent in the world’s second-largest economy this year, despite a rebound in the overall economy, official data showed.
“The [COVID-19] pandemic affected consumer behavior in the medium to long term, where consumers tended to spend their income on necessities and maintain certain savings,” Canalys analyst Lucas Zhong said in a report yesterday. “Vendors need to offer convincing products to stimulate upgrades.”
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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