China just so happens to be the single biggest smartphone market of them all as well, so it really cannot be overstated how crucial Apple's advantage over its arch-rival around those parts must have proven in the grand scheme of things. Samsung, mind you, remains completely unable to crack the region, failing to earn a spot among its five largest smartphone vendors yet again in both Q4 2023 and the entire last year.
What an incredibly tight contest!
You know how Samsung surpassed Xiaomi's global smartphone shipments by a colossal 80 million units or so in 2023 despite the two companies sitting in second and third place respectively in the latest IDC tracker? Well, there definitely are no such gaps in China between the top five vendors, which make for an even more compact group than the one in India.
The latest annual difference between Apple and Xiaomi stands at a little over four percentage points as far as Chinese market share is concerned, which may not sound very small... until you realize that we're talking about the nation's gold medalist and fifth largest vendor as of the end of last year.
Naturally, the gap between Apple and silver and bronze medalists Honor and Oppo is way smaller, at 0.2 and 0.6 percent respectively, while Vivo follows extremely close behind in fourth place as well. But iPhones are for the first time in history the most popular types of smartphones in China, and that's clearly an absolutely mind-blowing achievement made that much more impressive by the fact that all four of those other top brands are domestic to the world's most populous country.
The same obviously goes for Huawei, which did not manage to finish the year in the top five but did earn a deserving number four spot in Q4, surpassing both Oppo and Xiaomi after a remarkable 36.2 percent year-on-year boost in sales. This was the only top five brand to know true progress not only during the final three months of the year but 2023 as a whole, so Apple's newfound supremacy might be challenged very soon by a company that's gone to hell and back in just the last few years.
What's on the (Chinese) horizon?
To be able to (more or less) accurately predict the market's future, you have to understand its present and recent past very well. For instance, it's extremely important to note that China's 271.3 million smartphone sales total of 2023 represented a 5 percent decline compared to 2022's tally.
It's equally important to point out that the region went through ten (!!!) consecutive quarters of year-over-year decline before recovering moving towards recovery with a small but notable growth of 1.2 percent in the October - December 2023 timeframe.
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This gives everyone fairly realistic hope that shipments will rise significantly throughout 2024, which could benefit all of China's top five smartphone vendors, as well as Huawei and "other" companies that actually boosted their (combined) numbers in 2023p
Honor, for instance, is greatly positioned for progress thanks to its already pretty successful high-end foldable lineup and multiple popular low-to-mid-range Android devices. For its part, Apple may well need a bit of luck, an insanely successful iPhone 16 family, and possibly a budget-friendly new iPhone SE to retain its freshly obtained leading position in the insanely competitive Chinese market. But even if that doesn't happen, this 2023 feat will undoubtedly remain one for the ages (and the history books).
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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