Honor, Leaving Huawei... Surpasses Xiaomi in China in Q3, Increasing Its Presence

Market Research Firm Canalys Announces Q3 China Smartphone Market Shipments

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Honor, which spun off from Huawei, is rapidly increasing its presence by surpassing Xiaomi to rank third in the Chinese smartphone market in the third quarter.

According to market research firm Canalys on the 29th (local time), Honor secured an 18% market share in the Chinese smartphone market in the third quarter of this year, rising to the third position.

Honor's smartphone shipments in the third quarter reached 14.2 million units, an increase of 2.9 million units compared to 11.3 million units in the same period last year. During this period, its market share rose by 4 percentage points from 14% to 18%, and notably surged from 9% in the previous quarter to 18% in the third quarter, pushing Xiaomi down to fourth place.

Honor, first introduced by Huawei in 2013 as a mid-range smartphone brand, was spun off in November last year to sustain the Honor brand after Huawei was included on the U.S. trade blacklist in 2019, which prevented it from using the Google Android operating system (OS). Recently, Honor unveiled the mid-range 5G smartphones ‘Honor 50’ and ‘Honor 50 Lite’ in some European countries, and plans to start selling the Honor 50 series in about 40 countries from next month.

Looking at market share by company, Vivo maintained its top position with shipments of 18.3 million units and a market share of 23% in the third quarter. Compared to the third quarter of last year, shipments increased by more than 3 million units, and its market share rose by 5 percentage points from 18%. Oppo followed Vivo with shipments of 16.5 million units and a market share of 21%.

Xiaomi, which dropped to fourth place, recorded shipments of 14.2 million units and a market share of 14%, while Apple shipped 8.3 million units, ranking fifth with an 11% market share. Apple, which recently launched the ‘iPhone 13’ series, saw increased demand due to aggressive pricing policies, significantly boosting both shipments (5.1 million units) and market share (5.1%) compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, total smartphone sales in China in the third quarter this year amounted to 78.8 million units, a 5% decrease compared to the same period last year. Canalys predicted a sluggish Chinese smartphone market this year. The market is facing difficulties due to chipset shortages and other supply chain issues, and since the market is saturated, generating additional volume and profits is challenging. Amber Liu, a researcher at Canalys, added, “The Chinese smartphone market is expected to show very low growth this year due to global chipset shortages.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.