Android phone vendors are gearing up promotional efforts to boost shipments during the upcoming 618 shopping festival in China, where smartphone sales have been sluggish since the beginning of this year, according to industry sources.
Consumers’ demand for smartphones has been weakened by rising inflation, the war in Ukraine and COVID-induced lockdowns in China, said the sources.
As the handset market is facing increasing headwinds on many fronts, many China-based brand vendors and Samsung Electronics have reportedly revised downward their shipment targets for this year, noted the sources.
Xiaomi has scaled down its shipment projection for 2022 to 160-180 million units compared to the 200 million it set previously. Oppo and Vivo are likely to cut their ODM handset orders by 20-30%, indicated the sources.
Xu Qi, vice-president of Realme and president of Realme China, said that Realme is likely to lower its global shipment target by 10-20% this year and will make correspondent adjustments in the related channels and supply chains.
Earlier in May, Zhao Haijun, CEO of China’s top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), said it anticipated global smartphone shipments would fall by at least 200 million units in the year due to the impacts of global factors, with most of the shortfalls coming from Chinese brands.
Other industry sources pointed out that Samsung is likely to slash its handset production across the board to 280 million units from its previous projection of 300 million units, highlighting the weakness of the handset industry.
Facing the headwinds, most brands are counting on the mid-June shopping festival, hoping that the campaigns can spur sales momentum that will continue into the second half of the year, said the sources.
Apple also sees the 618-shopping festival as good timing to clear out its legacy models as it is ready to launch new products in the fall, the sources suggested.
While the 618 events may serve as a node for boosting handset sales in China in the first half of the year, the competition in the Chinese smartphone market will further intensify, said Realme vice president Xu Qi.
The handset industry is unlikely to stage a rebound until the fourth quarter of the year, Xu added.
