Is the cold winter coming for mobile phone manufacturers? Mobile phone shipments fell last month, down 34.1%

Several major domestic mobile phone manufacturers released new flagship phones in March. For example, Xiaomi launched two flagships, Xiaomi 11 Pro and Xiaomi 11 Ultra, while OPPO launched the Find X3 series of smartphones, which also has two products - Find X3 and Find X3 Pro. So, with major manufacturers launching flagship phones one after another, how were the sales of smartphones last month?

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Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology show that domestic smartphone sales fell by 34.1% last month, which is a very large decline. As for the reasons, I believe there are several aspects.

First, although the new phones released are relatively high-end and have high configurations, the prices are difficult for most consumers to accept. Most of the domestic high-end smartphone market share is mainly occupied by Apple and Huawei. These two mobile phone brands have not released any new high-end smartphones this year. Without new phones, it is difficult to increase sales, so the final sales may be affected.

Second, due to the shortage of chips, the number of models released by major mobile phone manufacturers has actually declined. Before this time, major mobile phone manufacturers should have launched a number of mid- and low-end smartphones, and mid- and low-end smartphones are the products with relatively high sales in the domestic market; of course, in the global market, the sales share of mid- and low-end smartphones will also be relatively high.

Third, the entire consumer electronics industry is not very prosperous. The epidemic has caused people to be afraid to spend too much, and the sales of smartphones will naturally be affected to a certain extent, especially high-end smartphones. Consumers may be more willing to buy cheaper mid- and low-end smartphones. After all, the cost of replacement will be relatively lower; however, due to the reduction in the number of new models released in the mid- and low-end markets, sales will naturally be affected to a certain extent.

If Huawei follows its previous product strategy, it will launch new P series smartphones in March or April this year. After the release of the P series machines, the impact on the industry will be relatively large. Domestic consumers like the P series smartphones very much. The P series smartphones can easily sell tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of units in China; of course, judging from the current situation, even if Huawei launches the P50 series smartphones, sales will not increase significantly, because Huawei's Kirin chip production capacity is insufficient and the supply will most likely not keep up.

The decline in domestic mobile phone shipments is due, on the one hand, to manufacturers adjusting their product strategies and the number of new phones failing to keep up; on the other hand, consumers’ purchasing power is decreasing and their desire to replace their smartphones has also greatly decreased; plus, Huawei has not launched a new P series smartphone, and Apple has not launched a new SE series machine, so the entire mobile phone industry does not look prosperous, and mobile phone manufacturers may be entering the next "cold winter."