China-based smartphone vendors together shipped over 150 million smartphones in fourth-quarter 2022, growing 6.6% on quarter but plunging 21.4% on year, according to DIGITIMES Research's latest report detailing China's smartphone industry.
The Chinese vendors had acted conservatively with their shipments in the fourth quarter to prevent a further increase in their channel inventory levels since the domestic smartphone market was still sluggish while overseas markets were seriously undermined by rising inflation.
In terms of the top-3 China-based smartphone brands' shipments in the fourth quarter of 2022, Oppo suffered a small sequential decline while Xiaomi and Vivo both enjoyed growth. The three vendors together represented 63.1% of China-based brands' combined shipments, down from 65.4% in a quarter earlier, the report noted.
Looking into first-quarter 2023, domestic demand in China will have difficulty recovering. On top of the slow season in markets abroad, smartphone shipments by China-based vendors will continue trending downward.
DIGITIMES Research expects first-quarter 2023 smartphone shipments by China-based vendors to decline more than 10% compared to a year ago.
