Sandalwood advisors: China Smartphone Manufacturers Engage

The China e-commerce smartphone market is experiencing a weak recovery, with a mild 5% growth observed from March to April.

According to Sandalwood's monitoring data on the China e-commerce platform, smartphone sales in the market witnessed a 2% year-on-year decline in the first four months of 2023, indicating a slight contraction. Specifically, from January to February, the market size decreased by 7%. However, there was a positive development as the market achieved a moderate growth of 5% from March to April. Nevertheless, compared to the same period in 2021, the market size still experienced a significant year-on-year decline of 10%. Overall, signs of recovery have emerged, albeit in a weak state.

Sales of Android and HarmonyOS smartphones have shown an increase, leading to a new level of average selling price in the e-commerce smartphone market.

Despite the overall decline in sales volume (-2%), sales revenue of Android and HarmonyOS system smartphones grew by 2% in the period from January to April 2023. Particularly in March and April, driven by a series of mid to high-end new products, sales revenue of Android and HarmonyOS system smartphones recorded an 8% year-on-year growth. The average selling price of these smartphones also experienced a noticeable increase. With the high baseline set by iPhones, the overall average selling price of smartphones in the e-commerce market remained stable at around 3,800 yuan, representing a 600 yuan increase compared to the same period last year (3,200 yuan).

iPhones priced below 7,000 yuan showed a decline, while Android and HarmonyOS smartphones with prices above 4,000 yuan achieved a 30% year-on-year growth in sales volume.

Due to the performance of the iPhone 14 standard version falling short of expectations and the strengthening of the Pro product line, coupled with the breakthrough of high-end Android smartphones and the recovery of high-end HarmonyOS smartphones, the market share of iPhones in the 4,000-5,000 yuan price range dropped to below 40%, and their share in the 5,000-7,000 yuan price range started to fall below 80%. Meanwhile, Android and HarmonyOS smartphones with prices above 4,000 yuan have established a stable presence and continuously made substantial breakthroughs in the 5,000-7,000 yuan price range.

Foldable screen smartphones continue to grow and serve as a key driver for high-end breakthroughs in Android brands.

Based on Sandalwood's monitoring data on the China e-commerce market, foldable screen smartphones witnessed an 83% year-on-year growth from January to April 2023. These smartphones accounted for nearly 40% of sales volume in the 6,000+ price range for Android and HarmonyOS smartphones, becoming a crucial driver for high-end breakthroughs in the Android product segment. In terms of product form, the sales volume of horizontally folding smartphones maintained steady growth, while the sales volume of vertically folding smartphones approached that of horizontally folding smartphones, indicating their transition into mainstream product forms. Sandalwood's monitoring data shows that from January to April 2023, the sales volume of horizontally folding smartphones increased by 60% year-on-year, while the sales volume of vertically folding smartphones grew by 121%.

Intensified competition in the mid-range segment, accelerated popularization of large memory and storage during the 618 shopping festival, and increased penetration of high-performance configurations.

As Android and HarmonyOS smartphones continue to recover their high-end market presence, they will further drive the popularity and competition of high-end product configurations in the mid-range segment.Paragraph 5 (continued): The price range of 2,000-3,000 yuan serves as the equilibrium point between quantity and price for Android and HarmonyOS smartphones, making it an ideal range for brands to drive changes in the market landscape. In the competition for cost-effectiveness, product configurations that provide explicit contrast in terms of pricing accelerate their penetration. A notable example is the rapid breakthrough of performance-oriented products represented by the IQOO series with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series processors from 2019 to 2021, as well as the recent rapid breakthroughs achieved by OnePlus through significant improvements in memory and storage.

According to Sandalwood's monitoring data on the China e-commerce market, in the first quarter of 2023, smartphones with 12GB or more of memory accounted for 31% of the market, with 12GB reaching over 25% and 16GB surpassing 5%.

Smartphones with storage capacities of 256GB or more accounted for over 60%, with 256GB representing 50% and 512GB and 1TB combined accounting for nearly 10%.

In the 2,000-3,000 yuan price range, the market share of smartphones with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage has declined from its peak of 40% and has been replaced by smartphones with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, which now accounts for over 40%. Furthermore, smartphones with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage have surpassed 5%, while those with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage have exceeded 2%, and those with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage have surpassed 1%.

During the 618 shopping festival in 2023, manufacturers began to launch new versions with 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, accelerating the popularization of large memory in the 2,000-3,000 yuan price range. With initial success in the high-end segment and the gradual establishment of strong competition, more flagship-level configurations will be introduced to the mid-range price segment.

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