China Smartphone Shipments Fall for a Fifth Quarter as Memory Costs Bite
Shipments dropped 4.3% to 66 million units in the second quarter, IDC says. Huawei and Apple were the only vendors that grew.
July 14, 2026 – 7:43 am
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For the fifth consecutive quarter, fewer phones left Chinese warehouses than a year prior. Shipments fell 4.3% to 66 million units in the second quarter, according to figures published on Tuesday by IDC, as manufacturers raised prices to cover rising memory and other component costs.
First-half shipments were down 4.2% year-over-year. While a prolonged downturn might seem like a temporary blip, a sustained decline of this duration starts to resemble a broader market trend. However, only two vendors experienced growth:
- Huawei shipped 19.4% more phones than the previous year.
- Apple saw a 24.4% increase.
Everyone else saw declines. Xiaomi, in fifth place, experienced a drop of 21.7%, while Oppo and Vivo were down 9.7% and 11.4% respectively. The key differentiator between winners and losers was pricing strategy:
"Huawei and Apple held their prices steady while competitors raised theirs, providing hesitant buyers with a reason to purchase during a quarter when most of the market was advising waiting," said Arthur Guo, a senior analyst at IDC China.
The surge in DRAM prices is driving these price increases. The limited supply of memory chips, as manufacturers prioritize high-bandwidth parts for AI accelerators, leaves phone makers with higher costs that must be passed on to consumers. Budget handsets are the first to feel the impact, as they have smaller profit margins to absorb higher component costs.
Most Android vendors responded by raising prices or reducing their budget offerings, an efficient way to convince price-sensitive buyers to keep their existing devices. Government subsidies, once a driver of demand, no longer provide a stimulus.
This trend is not limited to China. IDC now predicts a 13.9% drop in worldwide smartphone shipments for 2026, reaching 1.09 billion units, representing the industry’s steepest annual contraction on record. China itself is expected to see a decline of approximately 13%.
The first quarter already pointed in this direction. Shipments in China fell 3.3% between January and March, with Huawei and Apple holding up the market, according to Omdia’s figures, as costs led to higher device prices. This global trend reflects the challenges posed by rising memory prices and their impact on Android vendors, particularly those focused on budget devices.
Apple’s strong performance in China, meanwhile, is not entirely new. Its shipments rose around 20% in the first quarter on Counterpoint’s data, marking the fastest growth among major vendors, and the second quarter continued this positive trajectory.