Shipments of smartphones within China rose 30.6% year-on-year to 32.7 million handsets in October, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
Shipment numbers were up from about 25 million in October 2020 and 20.8 million in September 2021, according to the CAICT, a state-backed think-tank.
Financial research firm Jefferies stated in a note published late on Tuesday that the surge stemmed from the release of the latest iPhone series, as well as Android players getting ready for a sales surge for the Singles’ Day sales period.
Apple launched the iPhone 13 in China in September. “We believe the strong shipment growth in October is due to strong sales of iPhone and the Android camp getting ready for the [Singles’ Day] event, which started on November 1,” Jefferies said.
Handset Production Issues
“We believe iPhone continued to gain market share in China and globally, although to a lesser extent,” the research group said. “However, we are not sure if it would be positive growth year-on-year, and we believe iPhone will likely see further market share gain.”
Handset brands are currently experiencing production issues due to a global computer chip shortage. However, John Choi, a Daiwa analyst in Hong Kong, said: “We think supply chain issues may ease earlier in the first half of 2022.”
A combination of factors including demand miscalculation, unexpected factory shutdowns and US-China tensions have prompted a number of carmakers to report chip sourcing issues.
That shortage has since spread to many types of chips and all kinds of hardware, including smartphones. Delayed upgrades from consumers had also caused sales to slow.
- Reuters, with George Russell
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