Advertisement
Advertisement
Xiaomi 14 sales top 1 million units as it jostles with Huawei and Apple in China’s shrinking smartphone market
- Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said sales of the flagship phone, running Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, topped 1 million in less than two weeks
- Competition in China’s smartphone market has been heating up since Huawei’s release of the Mate 60 and Apple’s iPhone 15 launch
Iris Dengin Shenzhen
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said the smartphone giant has sold more than 1 million units of its Xiaomi 14 handsets amid intensifying competition in the domestic market after recent Apple and Huawei releases.
“It is true that [Xiaomi 14 sales] have surpassed 1 million units, but the shortage in stock remains severe,” Lei posted on Weibo on Tuesday, in response to another user’s question. “We are exerting the utmost strength to rush our orders; please be patient.”
The Xiaomi 14, launched on October 26, is the latest flagship smartphone from the brand once known for its budget handsets. It is also the first smartphone on the market to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, along with Xiaomi’s new Android-based operating system HyperOS.
Xiaomi launches new home-grown OS, as Huawei moves further from Android
Xiaomi launches new home-grown OS, as Huawei moves further from Android
The device’s popularity adds fuel to the competitive fire burning through China’s smartphone market after Huawei’s comeback in the high-end 5G segment with the Mate 60 series in late August and the release of the iPhone 15 in September.
China’s smartphone market will face “a structural change” upon Huawei’s return and declining iPhone demand in 2024, according to Kuo Ming-chi, a TF International Securities analyst known for his accurate assessments of Apple’s business.
“The iPhone shipment decline in China is higher than expected … primarily due to a decline in iPhone demand,” Kuo wrote on Twitter last week.
By the end of September, Apple was estimated to have shipped 3 million iPhone 15 series phones, while shipments of the Mate 60 series topped 2 million in the third quarter, according to Canalys.
Huawei’s Mate 60 series – launched by surprise with a 5G Kirin 9000s processor manufactured in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp
– ignited patriotic fervour and strong local demand after the company had struggled under Washington’s trade sanctions.
Strong domestic interest in the Mate 60 series helped Huawei grow its third-quarter smartphone sales by 37 per cent from a year earlier, as the overall Chinese smartphone market fell by 3 per cent, according to Counterpoint Research.
Encouraged by brisk demand for the new device, Huawei raised its smartphone shipment target for the second half by 20 per cent, according to a report last month by Chinese newspaper Securities Daily.
However, Huawei also faces a shortage in supply as it scrambles to meet consumer demand. On Monday, the company launched a new campaign, promising a wait time of no more than 90 days when customers order the Mate 60 Pro from the official website.
8