China Smartphone Internet Sales Take 31 Percent of Overall Market in 1H21

China’s smartphone internet retail sales by units had a 31% share of the total market shipments in H1 2021, according to Counterpoint Research. For the full year, they estimate that the internet retail sales in 2021 will be slightly lower than 2020, while the revenue will increase.

“From 4Q20 to 1H21, 5G-enabled smartphones flooded the market, including the Apple iPhone 12 series. But most of the target 5G users had already changed their phones. With the smartphone replacement cycle in China being 26-30 months, the market entered a near-saturation situation,“ said Senior Research Analyst Ivan Lam.

“We estimate that the smartphone market in H2 2021 will still have higher sales than H1 2021 before moving to a flat or tiny uptrend in 2022. This means huge pressure on the leading smartphone OEMs to get their strategy right to retain or increase their share. With the right plan for internet retail, OEMs can yield twice the result with less effort,“ said Research Analyst Mengmeng Zhang.