Huawei’s Mate 60 5G smartphone drives Singles’ Day demand, outshining iPhone 15

China’s smartphone market saw a 5 per cent bump in sales volume during the country’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, driven by demand for handsets from local tech champion Huawei Technologies, while Apple saw a dip in the number of iPhones sold during the campaign.

Huawei’s volume surged 66 per cent during the two-week sales period of Singles’ Day, China’s biggest annual shopping extravaganza that ran from late October through November 11, while Apple saw a 4 per cent decline, according to a report by Counterpoint Research on Friday.

The recent launch of Huawei’s Mate 60 series 5G phones, as well as the popularity of its older 4G models, helped boost the company’s sales, but the stellar growth rate was measured against a low base in 2022 when Covid restrictions were still in place in China, Counterpoint analyst Archie Zhang noted.

“We expect it will grow by more than half this year, but that still doesn’t bring them close to pre-Covid levels. But it is signalling a promising 2024,” Zhang said.

Local rival Xiaomi recorded a 28 per cent rise in the number of handsets sold during the sales period, while Huawei’s spin-off brand Honor posted 11 per cent growth during the period.

However, Apple still led smartphone makers in terms of overall market share, followed by Xiaomi and Honor. Huawei ranked fourth on the back of its strong growth.

The sales figures for Singles’ Day will boost confidence for positive fourth quarter results, Counterpoint said, as they followed a strong performance by Huawei, Xiaomi and Honor in October.

Huawei’s surprise launch of its Mate 60 series, powered by an advanced, locally made Kirin 9000s processor, was a bright spot in the Chinese smartphone market, which recorded a narrower decline in overall third-quarter sales. Eight weeks since its launch in August, the Mate 60 series has recorded 2.4 million units in domestic sales volume, according to earlier Counterpoint data.

However, Huawei is scrambling to crank up production of its new 5G smartphones to meet demand, and has introduced a subscription programme for the Mate 60 Pro model that promises a wait time of no more than 90 days.

An ad for the Singles’ Day shopping event at a subway station in Shanghai, November 4, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg

The popularity of Huawei has cut into the market share of Apple, which launched its iPhone 15 series in September. During the Singles’ Day campaign, Apple’s sales improved but it still faced supply chain issues, according to Counterpoint analyst Ivan Lam.

The success of Xiaomi 14, the latest model introduced by the Beijing-based company last month, also intensified domestic competition with Apple and Huawei.

Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said on social media that Xiaomi 14 unit sales surpassed 1 million in less than two weeks, and that they faced a severe shortage of supply.

In the run up to the November 11 sales extravaganza, the iPhone 15 series was subject to steep discounts on Chinese e-commerce websites, a rarity for Apple, which usually exerts tight control over the retail pricing of its products.