By Li Panpan

(JW Insights) Jul 28 -- China's shipment of smartphones reached 65.7 million in the second quarter of 2023, down by 2.1% year on year, said research firm IDC on July 27.

In the first half of the year, the Chinese market saw 130.9 million shipments, down 7.3% year-on-year, said IDC in its latest report.

The sluggish consumer demand recovery offset the bigger discount efforts from smartphone vendors and e-commerce operators, leading to a more-than-5% drop in sales during the "618"(June 18) online shopping festival. The discouraging sales results indicated the challenging environment will continue in the short term, said IDC.

OPPO, Vivo, Honor, Apple, Xiaomi, and Huawei were the top five vendors by market share during the time. Their market share exceeded 13%. Huawei and Apple were the only vendors with positive YoY growth in the Top 5 ranking.

IDC analyst Guo Tianxiang said that the growth of China's smartphone market in the first half of the year was lower than expected. It is challenging for both Apple and Android manufacturers to produce subversive innovative products in the second half. The Chinese smartphone market is hoped to enter a clear recovery trend in the fourth quarter, and the overall situation is still uncertain.