In a report released today, Counterpoint Research says that despite the discounts seen during China’s 618 shopping period, smartphone sales declined 13% from the year-ago period. Here are the details.

Memory costs weigh on China’s 618 sales

For the past few quarters, most reports and analysts have agreed that the iPhone 17 lineup was countering a market-wide lull in China, with healthy sales and strong growth.

However, according to a new report from Counterpoint Research, that wasn’t enough to keep the momentum going during Chiha’s 618 shopping period:

Apple began its promotional campaign about one month ahead of the 618 day, offering total savings of up to CNY 2,000 on the iPhone 17 Pro series through a combination of official discounts, platform promotions and trade-in incentives. The price cuts quickly translated into stronger sales, lifting Apple to the No.2 spot in the market. Despite the sequential rebound, sales were still down 9% YoY, primarily due to the more aggressive promotional activity for the iPhone 16 series in the same period last year.

Between May 25 and June 21, Huawei led China’s smartphone market with a 21% share, according to Counterpoint. Apple and OPPO followed with 18% each, ahead of vivo at 17%, Xiaomi at 14%, and HONOR at 10%. All other brands combined accounted for the remaining 2%.

Apple’s 9% drop was the smallest among the major brands that lost ground, compared with declines of between 12% and 33% for its Chinese Android rivals. Huawei was the sole major brand to post growth, with sales up 19% year over year.

Counterpoint says that the disappointing overall results for the 618 shopping period were caused “mainly due to price increases triggered by rising memory prices,” adding that “higher costs limited promotional intensity during this year’s 618 shopping festival compared with previous years, further suppressing already weak consumer demand.”

Source: 9to5mac