Editing by Li Panpan

Despite the flattening smartphone sales in China last year, the 5G smartphones are selling well in the country, thanks to the promotional efforts by both the industry and government, said Strategy Analytics senior analyst Wu Yiwen in a recent interview with JW Insights.

Wu noted that the overall performance of the smartphone market last year was not as good as expected. “But the 5G smartphone market represents a very vigorous growth trend. In our opinion, according to Q3 statistics, the global 5G smartphone shipments in Q3 this year is about 160 million, almost 50% of global shipments, which also shows a great growth rate behind it,” she said.

With more affordable 5G models and new 5G applications, China's 5G smartphone user base has reached 497 million, accounting for more than 80% of the world’s total in late December 2021. The 2021 growth rate in the country is about 120%, according to the JW Insights estimate.  

Wu Yiwen pointed to the factors behind the phenomenal growth of 5G smartphones: the strong promotion of the government, the rollout of more base stations, and the cheaper 5G fees by network carriers.

“The smartphone manufacturers, who try their best to reduce the price of 5G smartphones to about 1000 yuan in a short time. From the perspective of consumers, there is also a small gap between the purchase of 4G and 5G smartphones. Under such a background, 5G is growing rapidly. In addition to China’s growth model, we also see that manufacturers like Apple also joined the 5G camp. They have been iterating since iPhone 12. Now Apple has become the largest 5G smartphone manufacturer in the world, ”Wu said.

Meanwhile, the price of 5G chips continues to fall. Wu said, “It provides a good impetus for the stability of 5G smartphone prices in the future.”

As for future growth, Wu said, “5G users will keep growing because once 4G users start using 5G smartphones, it will be difficult for them to return to 4G, which is a natural iterative process of consumption upgrading. However, growth may not maintain a 3-digit or 4-digit growth as it is now, and it may be more of a 2-digit growth. After all, the base is constantly increasing”.