Counterpoint: China's smartphone sales to grow 1.5% year-on-year in 2024

Counterpoint's "China Smartphone Weekly Sales Tracker" shows that China's smartphone sales will increase by 1.5% year-on-year in 2024. The performance of China's stock market was mixed, with a weak start and a sluggish end compared to the previous year. From week 5 to week 36, smartphone sales were generally better than the same period of the previous year.

Despite the overall growth, there were significant differences in the performance of major brands. Huawei's annual growth rate reached an astonishing 36%, followed by Xiaomi (10%) and vivo (6%). In contrast, Apple fell 13% year-on-year, OPPO fell 9% year-on-year, and Honor fell 3% year-on-year.

Looking ahead to 2025, China has expanded national consumer subsidies to smartphones and other electronics to boost domestic consumption. This could be a catalyst for sales growth in 2025. However, China still faces significant economic pressures from sluggish domestic consumption and the potential threat of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports. Given these challenges, we remain cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the Chinese market in 2025.