Chinese smartphone makers are anticipating that the new season will help the industry to recover the ground it lost due to the Covid-19 epidemic fallout. Companies are vying with each other to unveil the latest cutting-edge premium handsets after a new report showed that smartphone shipments in China rose by 236.6% on a yearly basis in February, when more than 21.3 million smartphones were shipped, according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a Beijing-based government think tank. That is in sharp contrast to February 2020 when almost all smartphone shops struggled to keep their doors open during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In March, dozens of smartphone launch events were held. Vivo alone held three events to release three new phone series and rival Realme also held two. Vivo and another smartphone maker Meizu both unveiled their new 5G phones on March 3. Realme and Nubia both held launches on March 4. In the second half of March, the battle was even fiercer. From March 22 to 25, device makers Honor, Oppo and Vivo unveiled their new 5G smartphones one after another. Four days later, on March 29, Xiaomi unveiled its latest flagship models. Such a frenzied smartphone release schedule has not been seen in recent years as the global smartphone market hit a saturation point and people refrained from upgrading their handsets, said Fu Liang, an independent telecom expert who has been following the industry for more than a decade.

Such a revival signals that the spring battle for 5G smartphone market supremacy in China is ongoing, especially in the high-end segment. This comes while Huawei, the former longtime champion of the local market, suffered the impact of U.S. sanctions. Sensing the opportunity left by Huawei in the USD600-and-above premium segment, local smartphone makers are all beefing up resources to show consumers their advances in product design, research and development (R&D), as well as ambitions in expanding retail channels.

Liu Zuohu, Founder and CEO of OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone vendor known for its dedication to design, said the company will spare no efforts this year to expand its presence in the high-end segment. “We will invest CNY1 billion over the next three years to continuously seek breakthroughs in color and professional experience to create the ultimate mobile imaging experience,” Liu said. The company announced a partnership with Swedish firm Hasselblad in March to develop better smartphone cameras. Such a commitment is already reflected in the latest OnePlus 9 series, unveiled on March 24, featuring cameras that Hasselblad helped develop. OnePlus said it will ramp up efforts to expand its presence in the offline retail channels, with more than 1,000 employees now working in this area.

Rival Oppo became the top smartphone brand in China for the first time in January, with a market share of 21%, said Counterpoint Research. Liu Bo, President of Oppo China, said the company aims to be one of the three major players that dominate the USD600-and-above market in the future. The other two players are Apple and Samsung Electronics. In March, Oppo also unveiled its latest premium smartphone series the Find X3. The smartphone model is expected to be Oppo’s biggest-ever push to grow its share in the premium smartphone segment. Varun Mishra, Senior Analyst at Counterpoint Research said: “Oppo has been successfully able to reposition its product lines in 2020. The rebranding of the Reno series and launching a more capable device at a lower price point than its predecessor helped Oppo capture the affordable premium segment.” 

Meanwhile Honor – a brand that gained independence from Huawei in November – is trying to regain lost market share. Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor, said the company plans to be among the world’s top 500 companies as it expands in the high-end smartphone segment and opens more offline retail stores. Honor aims to reach an annual revenue exceeding CNY100 billion soon, Zhao said.  On March 23, Honor unveiled its latest 5G smartphone – the Honor V40 Lite Luxury Edition – featuring slim design and fast charging technologies. 

Jian Qin, Deputy General Manager of China Mobile, the world’s largest telecom operator by mobile subscribers, said: “This year will see explosive growth of 5G smartphones. We forecast that over 350 million  smartphones will be sold in China and 280 million of them will be 5G handsets. We think nearly 300 million users on our telecom network may upgrade to 5G,” the China Daily reports.