A new H2 2025 smartphone market report by analytics firm Canalys shows Huawei has claimed the top spot in the Chinese market. In contrast, Apple showed signs of a rebound, hinting at promising results ahead.
Huawei takes the top spot in China’s smartphone market after shipping 12.2 million phones
Source Cryptopolitan
The factor behind Huawei’s incredible results was its smartphone shipments. Robust smartphone shipments largely drove its success. The company shipped approximately 12.2 million units in China in the three months ending June. This marked a 15% surge in annual revenue for the company.
Following this rise in revenue, its market share also increased to 18%, according to Canalys. This is the first time a tech firm has acquired market dominance in the country since 2024.
Apple acquired the fifth position in the smartphone market rankings. Its smartphone shipments have also been a major factor in this sign of recovery since 2023. With a shipment of 10.1 million smartphones, Canalys reported a 4% annual increase in revenue.
Although shipment does not actually represent the number of sales of the tech firms, it is used as a measure of demand for the company’s products, as it represents the number of mobile phones delivered to retailers.
This year’s smartphone market results shocked the entire market
The smartphone market results released do not include Apple’s recent earnings analysis, which is scheduled to be announced this week. Investors are now closely monitoring the tech giant’s progress in China.
Earlier, it faced several challenges raised by stiff competition from rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi, a local company in China that produces consumer electronics and specializes in smart manufacturing.
Huawei also faces challenges in its operations. For instance, due to ongoing US security concerns about China, the Chinese-based company has been subject to business restrictions in the United States.
Despite this, it still solidified its position as the leader in the smartphone market to the extent of owning a portion of Apple’s market share.
Meanwhile, the US-based tech company’s recovery in the smartphone market has greatly enhanced investors’ confidence, mainly due to its change in business strategy. Canalys revealed that it lowered the pricing of its products, such as the iPhone 16 series, making it affordable in the Chinese market. For other iPhone models, Apple decided to increase their resale prices.
Apart from Canalys, Counterpoint Research, a global tech market research company, also highlighted Apple’s growth in the smartphone market once more.
However, it is worth noting that Apple’s stocks in 2025 have decreased by 14.5% mainly due to the US’s security concerns about China, and the current challenges politics bring about globally.
Analysts acknowledged the stiff competition in China’s smartphone market
US President Donald Trump intended to impose a threatening tariff on Apple products earlier. Trump also ordered Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, to make iPhones only available in the US markets. This raised controversy among individuals, making the situation even more complicated for Apple.
Even with this tough situation, Apple still strives to push its smartphone market rankings to the top as competition in the Chinese market becomes stiffer as time goes by.
For instance, Huawei launched several smartphone models last year and has revealed intentions to bring up another model known as HarmonyOS 5 this year. The model is Huawei’s most upgraded smartphone with a self-reliant operating system. It is set to compete with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
In a press release, an analyst at Canalys, Lucas Zhong, commented that this stiff competition will boost smartphone adoption among users and increase growth in the sector. However, Zhong warned that this could increase pressure among the tech companies to satisfy the growing demand for improved system compatibility and user experience.
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Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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