Q1 performance of China's mobile phone market: down 20.3% month-on-month, 5G replacement trend accelerates

According to the quarterly mobile phone report released by IDC, in the first quarter of 2020, China's smartphone market shipments were about 66 million units, a month-on-month decline of 20.3%. Among them, domestic 5G mobile phone shipments were about 14.5 million units, accounting for 21.8% of the overall market.

According to data released by IDC, Huawei (including Honor) shipped 28.4 million units in total this quarter, ranking first with a market share of 42.6%; vivo and OPPO shipped 12 million units and 11.8 million units respectively, ranking second and third with market shares of 18.1% and 17.8%; Xiaomi shipped 7 million units, ranking fourth with a share of 10.6%; Apple shipped 5.1 million units, with a share of 7.6%.

Compared with the same period last year, the shipments of the top five mobile phone manufacturers have declined to varying degrees, with Xiaomi's decline exceeding 33%. Huawei has achieved the best performance among the top five Chinese manufacturers in a severe market environment. IDC believes that Huawei's multi-terminal collaborative ecological advantage has had a certain impact on mobile phone products.

The report also shows that in the first quarter of 2020, the proportion of users changing their phones in the Chinese 5G market increased significantly, with shipments of about 14.5 million units, a 64% increase from the previous quarter. Price is undoubtedly an important factor in stimulating users to change their phones. Data shows that the average unit price of 5G phones has dropped rapidly, and in the first quarter of 2020, it has dropped to less than $600 (US dollars excluding tax). Driven by the industry chain and domestic mobile phone manufacturers, it is expected that in the fourth quarter of 2020, more 5G phones priced less than 2,000 yuan will be launched.

As the price of 5G mobile phones drops to a more mainstream price range, the competition among leading mobile phone manufacturers will become increasingly fierce.

Wang Xi, research manager of IDC China, said that in the short term, the lower-priced 5G products have put forward a more stringent test for the accuracy of product positioning by manufacturers. Therefore, 5G products at this stage should be oriented to different target groups, and adopt more targeted product functions and marketing positioning flexibly and accurately to ensure the benign product profit and loss while stimulating the demand for replacement of the corresponding target groups.