Honor Device Co’s shipments have surged to make the company China’s second-largest smartphone maker with a 16.7% market share, a new industry report from Counterpoint, a market research provider, showed. Honor won the second spot for the first time after it was spun off from Huawei Technologies in 2020. Its rise in the smartphone sector shows the battle for market supremacy is heating up, device industry experts said. Counterpoint data showed Honor increased its market share by more than two times from a year earlier in the fourth quarter of last year. Archie Zhang, Analyst at Counterpoint, said Honor’s mid-range to high-end products helped drive the brand’s sales, with its model Honor 50 retaining the top spot in the USD200-599 price range for five months after its launch in June. In comparison, Apple was the largest smartphone vendor in China with a market share of 21.7%, as the iPhone 13 dominated the premium segment, thanks to its comparatively lower launch price. Oppo came in a close third with a market share of 16.6%.
“Coming into 2022, we expect Honor to maintain its growth momentum with the help of newly launched products such as the Honor 60 and its foldable smartphone, the Magic V,” Zhang said. According to Counterpoint’s weekly China sales data, Honor enjoyed strong momentum, with its sales in the last two weeks of January increasing 32% over the first two weeks. Its market share reached a record 17% in the week to January 30. Even though China’s smartphone shipments dropped 11% year-on-year in the last quarter of last year, major players kept expanding their premium product portfolios, including Vivo’s X70 Pro, Xiaomi’s Mix 4 and Honor’s Magic 3 and Magic V, Counterpoint said.
Foldable smartphones are another hot option for smartphone makers that seek to target the premium segment with differentiated products. In December, Huawei, Honor and Oppo all unveiled their flagship foldable smartphones. Canalys forecast that foldable smartphone shipments will likely increase by a compound annual growth rate of 53% between 2021 and 2024, to exceed 30 million units in 2024, the China Daily reports.
