China smartphone shipments fall for a fifth quarter as memory costs bite

For the fifth quarter running, fewer phones left Chinese warehouses than a year earlier. Shipments fell 4.3% to 66 million units in the second quarter, according to figures published on Tuesday by IDC, as manufacturers raised prices to cover the rising cost of memory and other components.

First-half shipments were down 4.2% on the same period last year. A run that long stops looking like a soft patch and starts looking like the shape of the market. But, only two vendors grew. Huawei shipped 19.4% more phones than it did a year ago, and Apple 24.4%, giving them 22.6% and 18.1% of the market respectively.

Everyone else went backwards. Xiaomi, in fifth place, saw shipments fall 21.7%, while Oppo and Vivo were down 9.7% and 11.4%. What separated the winners from the rest was not a product cycle, it was nerve on pricing.

“Huawei and Apple held their prices...

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