With smartphone sales in the China market remaining feeble, consumption in overseas markets significantly undermined by the high inflation, and Chinese smartphone brands acting conservatively over their shipments to keep their channel inventory low because of the slow season, smartphone shipments by the Chinese brand vendors are expected to slip 13.2% sequentially and 17.1% on year in the first quarter of 2023.
However, their shipments are expected to make a recovery in the second quarter, stimulated by robust demand from shopping festivals, with an on-year decline to shrink to less than 10%.
China-based brands shipped a total of around 133 million smartphones in the first quarter. Of the top-3 brands, Oppo only had a small on-quarter shipment decline, while Xiaomi and Vivo both suffered a double-digit sequential decrease in the quarter.
