Apple Leads Top Brands for China Smartphone Growth as Market Declines

[MacRumors]

China's smartphone shipments fell 4% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, according to data from Counterpoint Research, with Apple delivering the strongest growth among the top six brands.

Counterpoint's Market Monitor Tracker attributed the decline primarily to a high base effect from last year's government subsidy program and rising component costs. Counterpoint noted that February's Lunar New Year promotions provided a slight boost, but said the "magnitude of these discounts was hampered by a sharp increase in memory costs." Rising costs are already driving up retail prices on both new and used devices, and the pressure is expected to continue through the second quarter.

Apple rose to second place in the market with shipments up 20% year over year, driven by strong iPhone 17 series demand, promotional price cuts, and government subsidies. Counterpoint says Apple is best positioned among manufacturers to navigate the ongoing global memory crunch, supported by its premium product portfolio and supply chain management. The firm expects Apple to absorb rising costs internally in the near-to-medium term and expand its market share as a result. The first quarter result extends a strong run for Apple in China; the company reclaimed the top spot in the country in the fourth quarter of 2025 with shipments up 28% year over year, and recorded a 23% sales increase in the first nine weeks of 2026.

Huawei led with a 20% market share, its highest since the fourth quarter of 2020, with shipments up 2% year over year, aided by domestic supplier relationships that cushion the impact of rising memory costs. OPPO ranked third following the reintegration of realme, with OnePlus rising 53% year over year on the Ace 6 and Turbo 6 series, though OPPO's decision to raise prices on older models in March has weighed on demand. vivo grew 2% year over year on mid-to-low-end strength, while Xiaomi was the sharpest decliner, falling 35% year over year as its core models underperformed the previous generation.

Counterpoint warned that manufacturers broadly face a "double hit" of shrinking shipments and thinning margins, and forecast that China smartphone shipments will decline 9% for the full year. Apple, by contrast, is expected to use the cost pressure to its advantage, absorbing memory price increases internally while rivals are forced to raise prices and cede ground.

Article Link: Apple Leads Top Brands for China Smartphone Growth as Market Declines

 

[TechnoMonk]

It’s race to the bottom in china.

 

[sw1tcher]

The firm expects Apple to absorb rising costs internally in the near-to-medium term

We should prepare ourselves for a small price increase with the iPhone 18 series. I mean, how long is Apple going to continue absorbing higher memory costs? At some point, they will pass the cost onto their customers.

 

[Jaziry]

It's really a good thing that Chinese phone makers, say, Xiaomi, pushed their own specs so hard that even Apple decided to gain some upgrade like the 17 Pro thermo design. Competition yes. Now I'm all waiting for the 20th anniversary iPhone.

 

[contacos]

Never thought I'd see the day where iPhone was cheaper than Chinese smartphones and by a lot! the new Vivo is 1999 Euro and the new Oppo IS probably gonna be around 1700 Euro as well

 

[HouseLannister]

Interestingly, Apple's gain doesn't come at any huge expense of any of the big 5, but from unknown mobile phone users. So is this a conversion of feature phone (dumbphone) users?

 

[theluggage]

Bring on the iPhone Neo with S10 processor!
🙂

 

[arthurgd3]

Never thought I'd see the day where iPhone was cheaper than Chinese smartphones and by a lot! the new Vivo is 1999 Euro and the new Oppo IS probably gonna be around 1700 Euro as well

Yeah, Oppo and Vivo flagships in the EU and UK aren't priced very well, either in line with rival flagships or higher. I guess it just depends on what your priorities are. The featureset of a Vivo X300 Ultra and Oppo X9 Ultra in the camera department is bordering prosumer camera level but Apple still has the edge on third party video gear hardware and pro level software apps too. Of course also the preference of iOS versus Android.

 

[Martin Bland]

The bigger story here is that the Chinese domestic consumer market is faltering. There are multiple news items about declining demand across many sectors in China. Most often the news is about a foreign company seeing shrinking demand in China that is attributed to the company not adapting to the Chinese market. But the declines are everywhere, and not just being felt by foreign companies. Apple was being portrayed as such one company as recently as last year, and yet as we now know, Apple is outperforming the competition in China in a declining smartphone market.

The muted media coverage of the very evident malaise in the Chinese domestic consumer market is odd.

 

[arthurgd3]

The bigger story here is that the Chinese domestic consumer market is faltering. There are multiple news items about declining demand across many sectors in China. Most often the news is about a foreign company seeing shrinking demand in China that is attributed to the company not adapting to the Chinese market. But the declines are everywhere, and not just being felt by foreign companies. Apple was being portrayed as such one company as recently as last year, and yet as we now know, Apple is outperforming the competition in China in a declining smartphone market.

The muted media coverage of the very evident malaise in the Chinese domestic consumer market is odd.

Just like the domestic Chinese car sector, there are just too many smaller players in the smartphone market too so this kind of market shrinkage was bound to happen in a market like China that has seen so much tech growth in such a short period of time.

 

[Martin Bland]

Just like the domestic Chinese car sector, there are just too many smaller players in the smartphone market too so this kind of market shrinkage was bound to happen in a market like China that has seen so much tech growth in such a short period of time.

The number of manufacturers does not have much of an effect, if any, on the size of the market or on market demand. People buy phones regardless of how many manufacturers there are.

 

[mannyvel]

The number of manufacturers does not have much of an effect, if any, on the size of the market or on market demand. People buy phones regardless of how many manufacturers there are.

The problem is that there are so many vendors that they all get into a price war and nobody makes money. The CPP has been trying to shut down this "race to the bottom" dynamic.

The important thing is to see how the luxury brands are doing in China. The narrative over the last few years was "Chinese consumers are starting to prefer domestic brands." The unsaid story was that The People couldn't afford foreign brands anymore, so they went with the cheaper local ones.

Apple's relative success means that the Chinese economy might actually be on the way back up; their sales are from people who didn't upgrade over the last two/three years.

 

[svish]

Good for Apple and the iPhone 17 series being excellent iPhones will help the sales throught the year.

 

[AlanBeyond]

Never thought I'd see the day where iPhone was cheaper than Chinese smartphones and by a lot! the new Vivo is 1999 Euro and the new Oppo IS probably gonna be around 1700 Euro as well

Apple is really good at controlling it's supply chain

 

[AlanBeyond]

The bigger story here is that the Chinese domestic consumer market is faltering. There are multiple news items about declining demand across many sectors in China. Most often the news is about a foreign company seeing shrinking demand in China that is attributed to the company not adapting to the Chinese market. But the declines are everywhere, and not just being felt by foreign companies. Apple was being portrayed as such one company as recently as last year, and yet as we now know, Apple is outperforming the competition in China in a declining smartphone market.

The muted media coverage of the very evident malaise in the Chinese domestic consumer market is odd.

I guess mainstream media are more focused on local economy and international trades, but not local economy in other countries. Chinese media are blatantly covering the low demand and deflation issue here.