Smartphone shipments to the China market amounted to 58.4 million units in the third quarter of 2022, falling 20.5% from a year ago to a new low since third-quarter 2020 amid China's lockdown restrictions and weakening market demand.
Looking into fourth-quarter 2022, as economic outlook and consumer confidence show no sign of recovery, most smartphone brands will keep making it a priority to lower their channel inventory level. As such, smartphone shipments to the China market are estimated to still show a more than 20% on-year decline in fourth-quarter 2022.
The top-4 Chinese brands - Oppo, Honor, Vivo, and Xiaomi - all experienced an on-year decline in third-quarter 2022 shipments, while Huawei's shipments in the quarter increased sequentially thanks to a low comparison base in the second quarter of 2022 and picked up more than 30% from a year ago.