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China’s smartphone sales decline 22 per cent in first quarter, only Huawei bucks the trend

  • Smartphone sales in China saw the largest year-on-year decline ever in the first quarter of the year, according to Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint
  • Huawei was the only major smartphone vendor to achieve positive year-on-year growth, with sales dragged down by the coronavirus pandemic

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Huawei Technologies was the only major smartphone vendor to come off better in the latest quarter despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint. Photo: AP
Celia Chen
China’s smartphone sales plummeted 22 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 – the largest year-on-year decline tracked – compared to the same period last year, and Huawei Technologies was the only major player to come off better despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint.

Shenzhen-based Huawei saw smartphone sales grow 6 per cent year-on-year in the quarter ended March 31, making it the only major smartphone maker in the market to achieve positive growth during the first quarter when compared to the same period last year, said Counterpoint in the report on Wednesday.

The China market was “primarily dragged down by the dismal sales of smartphones in February with a decline of 35 per cent when the country was severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and commerce activities were minimal,” said Counterpoint research analyst Flora Tang in the report.

“However, the decline was smaller than original expectations thanks to the strong support from China’s e-commerce players including Alibaba [and] JD.com,” Tang said, adding that online sales of smartphones in China accounted for more than 50 per cent of sales during the first quarter compared to 30 per cent in 2019.

Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

Huawei’s strong performance comes amid not only tough market conditions due to the pandemic, but restrictions on its access to US components after the Trump administration put it on a trade blacklist in May last year.
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