China is the world’s largest smartphone market. That means America is second, right? Uh, no. This honor belongs to India and America is in third place. In China, the premium handset market is led, consisting of phones priced over $600
AppleAmerican company has 52% share in China’s premium market
huaweiThe embattled Chinese maker has 33% of premium phone pie in China after domestic premium handset sales surged 34% during the third quarter.
Huawei is cutting the prices of its phones to help it compete with Apple in this segment of the Chinese smartphone market. For example, the 1TB variant of the Pura 70 Ultra, part of the Pura 70 flagship series released in April, is the beneficiary of an 18% discount. This brings the price of the phone from 10,999 yuan ($1,494) to 8,999 yuan ($1,233). A photography-focused version of the phone with 512GB of storage is available with a whopping 20% discount. The price of the Pura 70 line, the successor to the P60 flagship series, was already reduced by 1,000 yuan ($137) last summer.
The foldable Huawei Mate X6. , Image Credit-Huawei
The foldable Huawei Mate X5, which was released in September 2023, is now being sold at a 19% discount. With that 2,500 yuan ($343) discount, the phone’s price drops to 10,499 yuan ($1,439). According to research firm CINNO, the Mate X5 has been the most popular foldable since its launch last year. Huawei started cutting the prices of its smartphones after releasing the new Mate 70 flagship series and the foldable Mate X6 in November.
Sales of the current Mate 70 flagship line have not been good. The weak sales are being blamed on the Kirin 9020 application processor (AP) that powers the phone. Manufactured by SMIC using its second-gen 7nm process node, the chipset is considered to be a weaker processor than the silicon used on competing phones like the 3nm A18 and A18 Pro found in the latest Samsung Galaxy S8.
iPhone 16 Model. Counterpoint Research says the Mate 70 series is still expected to sell more than 10 million units during its lifetime.
The tri-fold Huawei Mate XT opens to reveal a 10-inch display. , Image Credit-PhoneArena
Huawei is the most popular brand
foldable phone However in China it competes with a number of foldable models produced by its domestic rivals. CINNO reports that thanks to the Mate X5, Huawei shipped 1.12 million foldable units during the third quarter. That’s a massive gain of 97% year-over-year. And speaking of foldables, Huawei surprises the industry
The world’s first tri-fold foldable model was released last SeptemberThe Huawei Mate XT has a 10-inch screen and is priced at around $3,000.
