Huawei smartphone sales see biggest growth in 618 shopping festival, but Apple stays ahead

Huawei smartphone sales jumped 42 per cent while offering the smallest discounts, but Apple sold more by value in the month through June 20

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A person checks a Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone at a Huawei flagship store in Beijing on September 25, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:00pm, 26 Jun 2024

Huawei Technologies has emerged as the big winner in China’s smartphone market for the recently-concluded midyear 618 shopping festival with the biggest jump in sales and the smallest discounts, according to the latest data from Counterpoint Research.

Huawei sales jumped 42.4 per cent during the one-month 618 sales period that started May 20, according to Counterpoint, which attributed the rise to continued strong demand for the company’s latest handsets, including those from the Mate 60 and Pura 70 series that run on China-made chips. The company also offered the smallest price discounts relative to major rivals, Counterpoint said.

Apple has been able to defend its position ahead of Huawei by offering its largest-ever discounts for iPhones in China, helping to boost sales by 2.7 per cent year on year amid intensifying competition in the premium segment. Counterpoint figures put Apple as the second-best seller by sales volume for the period, behind Vivo and ahead of Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei.

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The 618 festival is China’s biggest shopping season after Singles’ Day. Amid a sluggish economy, e-commerce operators sought to attract more consumers this year by cancelling the traditional presale stage and extending the promotional period, which ran through June 20.

Total smartphone sales volume for the 32-day period grew 6.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2023, according to Counterpoint. The sales performance indicates a warm-up in demand, Counterpoint said, adding that it anticipates low single-digit year-on-year growth for China’s smartphone market this year.

Estimates from TechInsights are more pessimistic. It reported a 2 per cent decline in smartphone sales volume to 13.1 million units during the 618 festival. It expects the market to stay flat at 62.3 billion yuan (US$8.6 billion) this year.

Slower growth in online shopping and the rapid rise of live-streaming e-commerce have made the traditional sales campaigns associated with shopping festivals less attractive to consumers, TechInsights analyst Peng Peng wrote in a report.