CINNO Research: Apple sales increased by more than 30% in September, Honor ranked third

On October 30, CINNO Research's monthly monitoring data of China's smartphone market showed that the sales of the top five smartphones in September all dropped to varying degrees compared with August, with only Apple standing out with a year-on-year growth of more than 30%. However, overall, there was a significant increase compared with last year, with only Xiaomi's year-on-year decline of 12.3%.

At the same time, the largest month-on-month decline was in the thousand-yuan phones, which are mainly Xiaomi, mainly due to the lack of new models on the market recently; the largest month-on-month decrease was in the 1-3K low-end smartphones, which are the main contributors to domestic sales, and the overall sales decline was particularly evident in this segment.

CINNO Research believes that on the one hand, the market is waiting for the release of new phones in the third quarter, and the market is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Android phones, and consumer demand is delayed; on the other hand, the rapid recovery of the market after the epidemic last year brought a high base in the same period. With the launch of Apple's new iPhone 13 series and other new Android phones, coupled with the arrival of the "11.11" promotion season, the fourth quarter is expected to reach the peak of annual sales.

The agency predicts that with Huawei's continued restrictions and other brands unable to launch competing models, the iPhone 13 series will drive Apple to capture more high-end market share with its long-standing brand appeal. "In 2021, Apple's share of the domestic high-end smartphone market above 5K is expected to reach 70%. Although other Android brands are also focusing on the high-end market, they still cannot threaten Apple."

In addition, judging from the quarterly data, Honor achieved a quarterly growth of 113% in the third quarter with sales of approximately 12 million units, with the main contribution coming from the Honor 50 series and Magic 3 series.

It is reported that Honor has achieved positive growth for two consecutive months from July and August. Although there was a month-on-month decline in September, it turned positive year-on-year. It has ranked third in the domestic smartphone sales ranking for three consecutive months.

OPPO still holds the top position in the domestic smartphone market, and vivo still ranks second. OPPO (including realme) ranked first in the third quarter with sales of about 19 million mobile phones, which is basically the same as in the second quarter; vivo (including iQOO) ranked second in the third quarter with sales of about 18 million mobile phones, a slight increase of 1.6% from the previous quarter.

Xiaomi has returned to the market with the MIX 4 series, and its 2021 new models 11 Pro/11 Ultra are priced above 5,000 yuan. Currently, Xiaomi ranks third in the high-end market share. In September, Xiaomi's sales fell 12.3% month-on-month. Looking at the overall data for the third quarter, Xiaomi's sales fell 10.2% month-on-month with about 11 million mobile phones.