Huawei premium smartphone shipments surge, as Apple continues to lead segment in China

Huawei Technologies gained more ground in mainland China’s high-end smartphone segment in the third quarter, narrowing the gap with US rival Apple, which still leads that handset category, the latest data from research firm Canalys showed.

Shenzhen-based Huawei’s domestic shipments of premium-priced smartphones – handsets that cost more than US$600 – surged 34 per cent in the September quarter from a year earlier, resulting in a 33 per cent share, according to a report released by Canalys on Friday.

While Apple saw its iPhone shipments on the mainland decline 5 per cent in the same period, the US tech giant continued to lead domestic premium handset sales with a 52 per cent share.

Huawei’s strong performance in the high-end segment reflects the continued momentum from the firm’ successful comeback last year to the premium 5G handset segment in the world’s biggest smartphone market, which is on track to record its first sales growth in five years in 2024.

From July to September, Huawei also shipped a total of 1.12 million foldable handsets, up 97 per cent from a year ago, cementing its status as the bestselling foldable brand on the mainland, ahead of rivals such as Honor, Vivo, Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics, according to a November report from research firm CINNO.

Strong demand for Huawei’s attention-grabbing Mate XT trifold smartphone – which costs 19,999 yuan (US$2,800) for the 256-gigabyte model and remains in tight supply – in September prompted many scalpers in Shenzhen to raise its price from 60,000 yuan to 70,000 yuan.