iPhones out-sell all other smartphones in China in the final quarter of 2021

Counterpoint Research has now released its last report on the 2021 smartphone market in China, the home of many well-known Android smartphone brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo and Realme. Despite this, however, it is Apple that has ended 4Q2021 with the greatest share of this sector.

The California-based giant had amassed 23% of this market by the end of the quarter. This is a record for the iPhone-maker, and has enabled it to overtake Vivo (with 19%) to the lead. The latter also posted a 6% year-on-year (YoY) loss in 4Q2021, as did OPPO/OnePlus. Their performance was mirrored by the market in general, as it shrank by 9% YoY.

Those native OEMs did maintain their overall leading positions throughout 2021, however, as did most of the rest of the top 10 among individual brands (Apple, Xiaomi and Honor included) compared to 2020. Then again, there was one notable exception to this rule: Huawei.

The beleaguered company was the #1 smartphone OEM in 2020 with a share of 31%; however, this has fallen by 68% YoY to 10% overall, or a little less than its former subsidiary Honor.

Realme also seemed to have been able to buck the trend of general depression brought on by reduced consumer confidence, with an impressive growth of 378% YoY to increase its share to 3% by the end of 2021.