(JW Insights) Oct 31 -- The smartphone market in China has started to recover after the launch of Apple and Huawei Technologies' new products and is likely to achieve annual growth in the fourth quarter and expand further in the first half of next year, reported Yicai Global on October 31, citing a senior analyst at market researcher IDC.

The popularity and consumer attention level will continue to grow in the local smartphone market, boosted by promotions during the Spring Festival in China around January to February and e-commerce shopping festivals in the second quarter of next year, Guo Tianxiang told Yicai.

The market will likely grow in the first six months of next year from this year's first half, but there is still caution about the market's performance throughout 2024, Guo noted.

Handset manufacturers launched new competitive products with a new round of replacement cycles gradually beginning. This drove the Chinese smartphone market to a turning point in the fourth quarter and a likely first year-on-year growth in a quarter since 2021, according to a report by the IDC released on Oct. 27.

Smartphone shipments in China fell 6.3 percent to 67.1 million units in the third quarter from a year earlier. But with the launch of several new products since August, market prosperity has rebounded, with customers' attention on smartphones being significantly higher than in the first half, the report showed.

Competition between industry giants Apple and Huawei has led this round of recovery in the smartphone market. Apple launched its new generation of the iPhone series in the middle of last month, while Shenzhen-based Huawei debuted its flagship Mate 60 series at the end of August, according to the Yicai report.

(Gao J/Yuan XY)