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Apple and Honor handset sales slump in China in the face of Huawei revival.
Huawei's smartphone resurgence has taken it to the top of China's handset charts for the first time in five years and helped further depress the sales of Apple and Honor.
Huawei increased device shipments by 15.5% to take an 18% market share in Q4, ahead of Xiaomi on 17%, according to Counterpoint Research. The sales spike was driven by Huawei's new mid-range Nova 13 phones and flagship Mate 70 series, Counterpoint said.
Another analyst firm, Canalys (a sister company of Light Reading), puts Huawei in equal second place with Vivo, with both shipping 12.9 million units to take a 17% market share each. Huawei's shipments grew 24% while fourth-ranking Xiaomei also recorded a huge bump, up 29%.
By contrast, Apple device sales sank 25% year-over-year according to Canalys, and 18% as measured by Counterpoint.The decline highlights Apple's continued difficulty in China against a resurgent Huawei and other strong local brands, compounded by its inability to get AI-powered devices to market.
It is also a victim of the continued drift of Chinese consumers away from foreign brands across the economy.
The other brand feeling the impact of Huawei's revival is Honor, a business spun out of Huawei four years ago as the big vendor grappled with the impact of US sanctions.
CEO exits Honor
In the wake of a 15% drop in Q4 sales, Honor CEO George Zhao and China CMO Jiang Hairong have both exited the company in the past week. Zhao cited health reasons, while Honor reportedly described Jiang's departure as "routine." A former Huawei executive, Li Jian, has been appointed new CEO.
It's an unfortunate turn in the market for a company that is aiming for an IPO, although it has not set a timetable on the process. Last year Honor took on a brace of new investors, including China Mobile and China Telecom and state-owned investment giant CICC Capital. It did not disclose details.
Looking ahead, analysts don't expect government handset subsidies to hugely impact the China domestic market this year. Some city and provincial governments late last year began handing out cash to juice new handset sales, while a national smartphone subsidy program was launched this week.
Counterpoint said it would likely spark higher demand in Q1, but it forecasts low-single-digit growth over the full year because of the sluggish economy.
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