China Phone Shipments Hit 14-Year Low as Apple Climbs to Second

Smartphone shipments in China fell to a 14-year low in the third quarter of 2026, dropping 10% year over year, according to Counterpoint Research. Apple rose to second place in the market with a 19.5% share of shipments, up 4.8 percentage points from a year earlier, 9to5mac.com reported.

Huawei remained the top brand with 21.3% of shipments, a gain of 5.3 percentage points. Apple and Huawei were the only two of the top six brands to increase their share year over year in China during the quarter.

Counterpoint attributes part of Apple's climb, from sixth to second in overall shipments, to the launch of the iPhone 18 Pro series. Sales of the iPhone 18 Pro series in China during its first three weeks were up 23.5% year over year compared with the iPhone 17 Pro series.

The other four brands in the top six lost ground. vivo fell 2.8 percentage points to 15.2%, Oppo dropped 1.3 points to 15.1%, Xiaomi declined 1.6 points to 13.5% and HONOR slipped 2.2 points to 12.7%.

Counterpoint noted that rising smartphone prices are leading consumers to delay upgrades, wait for promotions or turn to refurbished devices.

Earlier IDC figures

A few days before the Counterpoint report, IDC said smartphone shipments in China fell 15.4% year over year in Q3 2026, with Apple's share rising to 17.8% despite a 4.3% decline in iPhone shipments. IDC also estimated that worldwide smartphone shipments fell a record 22% year over year in the quarter, with Apple posting the smallest decline among the top five manufacturers at 4%.